IPPN

Schools will lose teachers and funding under education cuts [Limerick Leader]

Published: 14 March 2009

By Mike Dwane

PRIMARY schools in Shannon are to lose out on extra teachers and almost €50,000 in funding from the Department of Education thanks to cutbacks announced in the Budget.
Shannon Town Council is backing the INTO's campaign against the cutbacks and a motion by Cllr Tony Mulcahy calls on the Government to scrap the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio by one pupil from September.

INTO members in Clare have told counci
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llors that St Conaire's National School will lose a permanent English language teaching assistant due to the capping of these positions at two per school regardless of the number of immigrant children in class.

An additional classroom teacher, supposed to be arriving in September, will not now be appointed as a result of the cutbacks.

St Aidan's National School will also lose out on their expected extra teacher in September because of the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio.

Losing this extra teacher means class size will increase by more than one pupil per class.

Schools in Shannon will also lose out on the €46,000 they could have expected from the free books scheme, Traveller education grant, school library grant, the teaching aids grant for special needs pupils and other grants and allowances that have been either curtailed or scrapped altogether by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe.

"In times of economic crisis, the three most important things are education, education and education," declared Cllr Mulcahy, adding: "I've been told by St Tola's, St Aidan's and St Conaire's that they are all facing huge cuts in staff or resources or both.

"St Conaire's will lose two teachers and Aidan's will lose one by September 1. There are cuts in book grants, Traveller education grants, special needs aids, all gone by the wayside.

"I don't know how teachers can be expected to cope with 33 or 34 kids in a class. To control them would be hard enough, never mind educate them."

Cllr Tony McMahon, chairman of Gaelscoil Donncha Rua, said there was little point writing to the Department of Education when its record of responding with any degree of punctuality was so "pathetic".

"You could be waiting three months to a reply to the simplest of questions. We have been paying for rental for prefabs for God knows how many years, and the rent paid out would have paid for a new school over and over again," Cllr McMahon said.

The Celtic Tiger, Cllr Sean McLoughlin said, was founded on the skills of educated university graduates who got their grounding in primary schools.

"We are now eating the scealláns, the seed potatoes. We are destroying the seeds before we get the full potato," he said.

Cllr Greg Duff said it was disgraceful that special needs children were having resources taken back from them which they had been denied for years.

Cllr Geraldine Lambert said it made no sense that strict health and safety regulations for the numbers in creche classrooms were not applied to primary education.

Industrial Action in Schools [INTO]

Published: 13 March 2009

Source: INTO

The INTO Executive meets today to plan campaign of action against pay cuts.

Following last weekend's vote for industrial action, up to and including strike action by primary teachers, the INTO Executive is meeting today to consider a campaign of action in the country's 3,200 primary schools. The union's call for industrial action was backed by 79% of primary teachers.

Among the issues being considered by the union's Executive Committee is support for the call by the Irish Congress of Trade Union's for a one day work stoppage on 30th March. The Executive will also examine proposals for a work to rule and withdrawal from additional work in schools.

Speaking in advance of this morning's meeting, INTO General Secretary John Carr said the size of the vote in favour of action showed the depth of anger among teachers at government's decision to walk away from social partnership.

"The dictatorial imposition of pay cuts dressed up as a pension levy on teachers and other public servants only has greatly angered primary teachers," said Mr Carr. "This added to the abandoning of negotiated pay increases will see some teachers losing up to twenty percent of salary before any budget changes are imposed next month."

O'Keeffe has no idea how many prefabs are in our schools [Labour Party]

Published: 13 March 2009

Source: Labour Party

Ruairi Quinn TD, Labour Spokesperson on Education and Science, has said the Government has no idea as to how many prefabs are in the country's schools. He called on the Minister for Education to carry out a full survey of prefabs

Deputy Quinn said: "I have been told by the Department of Education that they only conduct a survey of 900 schools each year to see how many prefabs there are in our schools. This means we have no idea how many there really are because there are over 3,200 primary schools in the State.

"I am puzzled when Minister O'Keeffe says the government knows exactly how many prefabs are in use. They haven't a clue.

"I have asked the Department on several occasions to survey every single school in the country and I have been told that this would be a waste of resources.

"I am calling on Batt O'Keeffe to make sure a full survey is carried out immediately. How can we plan for the future with such inaccurate information?"

'Hey, Taoiseach, leave our kids alone' [The Corkman]

Published: 12 March 2009

Source: The Corkman

By Bill Browne

Thursday March 12 2009

THERE can be few more important issues that a society is charged with than educating its young people.

It may be a bit of an overused cliché, but children are our future and we are therefore obliged to do all we can to ensure that their education is paramount.

However, judging by the condition of national schools across Ireland it is a message that has, for the most part, gone completely unheeded by those in high office.

There was once a time when the Irish education system was the envy of the world, the success of the thousands of people who have emigrated and forged successful careers abroad is testament to that.

Now, however, the government of the day are presiding over an education system that is slowing falling apart at the seams, particularly at primary school level.

This is no fault of the principals and staff in schools across Cork who do a magnificent job with the often limited resources available to them.

However, this cannot hope to continue if our children continue to be taught in converted toilets, draughty and over crowded classrooms and prefabricated buildings.

Add to that the fact that the government has introduce what can only be described as Draconian cutbacks to the education system as part of their knee-jerk reaction to the deepening financial crisis.

Cutbacks need to be made, we might not like the idea, but most people will agree with it.

However, cutbacks to the primary education system attack the very basis of any society and its ability to produce an educated and vibrant workforce.

This is not just me saying that, for years we were told that one of the key factors behind the success of the so called Celtic Tiger was our wealth of well-educated labour force.

If this was indeed the case, then surely it would make basic common sense to invest more money into the education system, not continue to strip it bare.

This is essential if we are to bring back the sense of confidence that we are all being told will be a vital part of putting the Irish economy back on track.

The upcoming ' minibudget' would be the ideal place to start. Instead of imposing more cuts on our beleaguered education system, the government need to have the ware withal to look start building for the future.

The message is a clear and unequivocal one: "Hey Taoiseach, leave our kids alone."

- Bill Browne

Taxpayer foots €420m bill to help fee-paying schools [Irish Independent]

Published: 11 March 2009

Source: Irish Independent

By John Walshe Education Editor

Wednesday March 11 2009

THE taxpayer has paid out €420m to subsidise fee-paying secondary schools over the past few years, new figures reveal.

The disclosure is likely to prompt fresh calls for a review of funding for the sector.

A breakdown shows the money was spent as follows:

Teachers' salaries -- €367m;
Grant payments -- €33m;
Building expenditure -- €12m;
Supervision payments --€5m.

Although the amount spent on salaries was generally known, the State expenditure on buildings had not been revealed until now.

Catholic fee-paying schools received €5m, while Protestant schools got the remainder. The highest year was in 2006, when €2.6m was spent on Catholic schools and €3.2m on the remainder, according to figures given in a Dail reply to Labour's Mary Upton.

Catholic fee-paying schools receive capital funding at the rate of 50pc of the total cost, subject to the individual circumstances of each case.

But Protestant and Jewish schools qualify for capital grant aid on the same basis as secondary schools in the free education scheme. Schools make a contribution of 5pc of the cost of a new building, with a cap on the local contribution of €63,000, and 10pc for an extension or refurbishment, with a cap on their contribution of €31,500.

Until this year, Protestant fee-charging schools were also paid a range of support service grants that the Catholic schools did not receive. These grants are being withdrawn in 2009 at a saving of €2.8m.

However, the withdrawal of the grants has upset the Protestant community.

Resentment

A letter sent by the Church of Ireland bishops to the minister says that "it is a cause of great resentment on the part of many in our community that there has now been a realignment of the Protestant Voluntary Schools, without notice or consultation".

The letter, seen by the Irish Independent, criticises the "blunt and drastic out-working of this unilateral realignment".

It says that in vast tracts of the Republic -- the west of Ireland, the south-west, north and east Cork, the south-east, west Dublin, the midlands, north-east and much of the north-west -- the State is not, itself, providing free Protestant secondary schools. A state grant to help pay for the education of necessitous Protestants goes some way towards filling a gap created by the State's own inability to provide free schools in every place.

But those who do not meet the rigorous means-tested criteria, and those who want their child to attend a Protestant school, have no option but to pay for a school of their own religious characteristic spirit and ethos. This contrasts with the majority of Irish secondary school pupils who are not obliged to pay for this, it says.

"It is a matter of the utmost concern to us, as bishops of the Church of Ireland, that this unique minority situation be acknowledged and, moreover, that the established place of all our Protestant schools within the free education scheme be endorsed afresh by you and your department" says the letter.

- John Walshe Education Editor