IPPN

Published: 04 March 2009

Source: The Kerryman

GOVERNMENT cutbacks in education under this year's controversial budget are nothing less than an attack on the very fabric of rural Kerry.

Finally set out by the Department of Education this week after months of fearful anticipation by principals across the county, the cutbacks will see 15 teaching posts lost to Kerry's primary schools come September next. What might seem a relatively small number of teaching posts on paper appears as an extraordinarily harsh measure against the county's least-empowered demographic on closer inspection - our children.

It is our rural children who will likely suffer most under Minister Batt O'Keeffe's efforts to shore up the State's dwindling revenues. These are the boys and girls we expect to populate rural Kerry in years to come; the greater part of our county that is struggling for years now to maintain its traditions amid ailing economic factors. The irony inherent in the Minister's cutbacks are not lost on rural Kerry. In an effort to address the national economy through cutting back spending on primary education, the Minister has assuredly set the scene for economic woes to come in the countryside. No matter how well the nation bounces back from the current crisis, the insidious effects of the education budget will continue to be felt most keenly across the county.

In small schools with few teachers, each post lost increases class size by far more than that ostensibly set out in the budget, where it is planned to increase classes by one pupil (from one teacher per 26 pupils to 1/27). In practice, however, class sizes in rural schools will balloon come September next. Coolard Principal Maurice O'Mahony, speaking this week to The Kerryman, said he will be in charge of 31 pupils next year as well as running the entire school.

While urban primaries are no less affected, by their very numbers they are in a somewhat better position to absorb the effects of the cutbacks. Struggling to attend to each and every pupil while trying to impose discipline on an expanded classroom, rural teachers fear for their ability to deliver the same standard of education, in accordance with the curriculum. As Douglas NS Principal, Dolores Johnston, said this week: "It's the rural schools that are being hit worst. Larger schools in the towns can absorb the effects much better." Kerry is today distinguished by sending the highest number of students to third level, proportionately, of any county in Ireland. It's a proud distinction we will likely soon lose if the government proposes any further cuts to one of the most important parts of our infrastructure.