IPPN

Published: 07 December 2008

Source : Sunday Business Post

Teachers, parents and their children were back on the streets again yesterday, protesting over budget cuts in the education sector.

The national demonstration, which saw tens of thousands of people march from Parnell Square to Government Buildings in Dublin, was the culmination of a series of protests held across the country since the cuts were announced. The issues they are protesting over range from increases in class sizes to the suspension of substitute cover, as well as the slashing of various grants in a variety of areas.

Last Thursday, education and science minister Batt O'Keeffe made a partial U-turn on one of the proposals, which banned substitution for teachers on uncertified sick leave or on official school business.

He said he would make €2.7 million available to second-level schools for the remainder of the school year. However, he said a full review of the substitution and supervision scheme would be carried out. But the concession did not stop yesterday's protest, which was organised by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT). It also had the support of parents and school management authorities.

Marching under a 'Schools United' banner, the protesters walked from Parnell Square to Merrion Square, where a rally was held. Addressing the crowd, INTO general secretary John Carr said that teachers ''play their part but there can be no progress unless the budget cutbacks on education are reversed''.

''Our children must not be asked to pay the price for this generation's obsession with greed and the relentless pursuit of personal and corporate profit. It beggars belief that children would be targeted by government to bail out an ailing economy," he said.

Carr said it was ''staggering'' that newcomer children, Travellers and special needs children would be targeted for additional cutbacks.

''Shame on the minister who thought up those cutbacks. Shame on the cabinet that approved those cutbacks. Shame onthe government that would implement those cutbacks.

And shame on any individual who would accept those cutbacks," said Carr. He said the protest had shown that parents and teachers did not want ''small children herded into overcrowded classes'', they wanted a fair deal for newcomer children who need to learn English and that ''underfunded, dilapidated and overcrowded schools are unacceptable.

''Here, in front of the seat of government in this country, you have made a statement that, while economic well-being and security are important, we live in communities of people, including children. And it is in primary children that you want government to invest for a sustainable future," said Carr.

The rally was the culmination of a range of protests organised by the unions every weekend since the first was held in Dublin at the end of October.

There have also been smaller, local protests organised in regions by groups as diverse as parents' councils and the Socialist Party.

Another of these local events is taking place in Lucan tomorrow. Declan Kelleher, president of INTO, told the crowd successive governments had never funded or staffed primary schools fairly, and now they were breaking promises on class sizes. ''Government expects primary schools communities to accept increased class sizes to pay for economic mismanagement.

They can forget it. Primary education partners are up in arms and are saying, 'no, no, no' on behalf of children. We've put up with discrimination at the hands of government for years, and now we are standing up to them and their spin doctors," said Kelleher.

Meanwhile, O'Keeffe went before the Dail Select Committee on Education and Science last Tuesday, asking for a supplementary estimate of €15.5 million for this year. O'Keeffe made it clear at the meeting that the money was not being sought for ''substantial additional expenditure''.

The money, he said, was to tide over the department until it received European Social Fund (ESF) receipts that were due to be paid this year, but might not be paid until next year. He said that the value of the receipts was more than the €15.5 million he was asking for, and that expenditure would be managed within budget.

He said increases in costs in some sections of his department - mainly in the pay and pensions of teachers and special needs assistants - had led to ''significant pressures and excesses'', but said these had been offset by savings elsewhere. In overall terms, an additional requirement of €230.57 million across the budget is offset by compensating savings of €215.07 million.

''This has been an extraordinary year in terms of the scale of demandled cost pressures on the education vote [the education budget], allied to the very significant deterioration of the wider economic picture," O'Keeffe told the committee. ''As a consequence, I have been very conscious of the responsibility to minimise the impact of those unavoidable cost pressures on the overall exchequer in these difficult times."

Balancing the books

Education and science minister Batt O'Keeffe was before a Dail committee last week, where he outlined where extra costs had been incurred and where savings had been made in the department this year.

Increased spending

* Primary school buildings: some €75 million is needed for the primary school building programme.

* Transport services: an extra €10.5 million is needed to deal with increased demand for school transport, as well as costs associated with extra special needs requirements.

* Salaries: an additional €40 million is required to deal with increases in the overall bill for teachers' pay, which stands at around €2 billion. The department also has to find an extra €10 million to meet the costs of additional special needs assistants.

* Payments to VECs, local authorities: the department needs an extra €48 million to provide for additional spending in the Vocational Education Committees (VEC) sector and €15 million to deal with payments to local authorities to pay for retired staff of VECs and Institutes of Technology (ITs).

* Grants for third-level institutions: an additional €8.8 million is needed to pay the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for grants to be disbursed to third-level institutions.

Savings made

* Teacher training: a saving of €6.22 million has been made in the area of in-career development and training.

* ICT in schools: €24 million was saved by the department's decision to delay the start of the new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) strategy.

* Redress: €25 million has been saved on the payment of awards under the Redress Scheme. The main reason for this has been due to a decline in the value of individual awards, as well as reduced legal costs.

* R&D: a saving of €27 million has been made in this area at higher-education institutions.

* Strategic Innovation Fund: the fund, set up to improve quality in higher education, made a saving of €23 million, as spending by institutions was slower than expected.

* Second and third-level capital programmes: €45 million was saved at second-level ; and another €29 million at third-level ; as the department prioritised primary-level capital spending.