Groups will continue reversal lobbying
- Published: 31 October 2008
Source : Irish Examiner
31st October 2008
TEACHERS, parents and other interested groups will continue to lobby for a reversal of education cutbacks in the coming weeks and months despite their failure to persuade government TDs to vote against them.
The attendance of 12,000 people at a protest against education cuts outside the Dáil on Wednesday night will be used as a reminder to the Government of public concern about the issue, regardless of its survival on the Labour Party motion on class sizes yesterday.
It is understood that a number of government backbenchers have already agreed to lobby Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe and other cabinet members on those concerns.
The most urgent worries are about the impact of changes to substitution cover for teachers on uncertified sick leave from January, which primary and second-level schools say will lead to closures or children being sent home because of an inability to have classes supervised.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) outlined to Mr O'Keeffe yesterday, in a meeting after the Dáil vote, the effects it expects the cutbacks will have on schools.
"We emphasised the damaging effects that the removal of substitution will have in the very short term. We asked him to reflect very seriously on that matter because primary and second-level managerial authorities have said schools will be in chaos because of that decision," said ASTI general secretary John White.
However, there was no sign that any changes are likely to be made to the proposed budget cuts.
"The minister told them he wants their members to work with him through the challenges ahead and co-operate with any changes proposed," Mr O'Keeffe's spokesman said.
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) will hold rallies against education cuts each Saturday between November 8 and December 6 in Galway, Tullamore, Cork, Donegal and Dublin and ASTI members are being asked to highlight the effects on their schools to local Government party TDs in the coming weeks.
The result of a ballot of the INTO's 25,000 members on the latest national pay deal is expected to be known at the weekend. It is unclear if this or the ballots of the ASTI and Teachers' Union of Ireland — open until November 7 and 14, respectively — will be used by the country's 60,000 teachers as a protest vote against the budget.
However, the 6% pay rise which the deal would secure them and other public servants over 21 months from next September could be hard to turn down, given the economic changes witnessed even since the deal was agreed six weeks ago.
Mr White stressed that the pay deal and the budget are separate issues.
Union warns Minister of chaos in schools next year
- Published: 31 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
31st October 2008
MINISTER for Education Batt O'Keeffe was warned of potential chaos in schools from next January. But he ruled out any U-turn on the Budget education measures in discussions yesterday with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI).
The 90-minute meeting was the first between the Minister and any of the main education groups since the Budget. School managers have warned they will have little option but to send pupils home because of the new limits on teacher substitution cover, which begin on January 7th next.
A department spokesman acknowledged that schools would face difficulties in January. He said the Minister was asking schools to co-operate in the national interest.
John White, general secretary of the ASTI, said he had forcefully told the Minister how the Budget would severely curtail many aspects of school life. "Second-level school managers have clearly stated that there will be chaos in schools from January if these cuts go ahead and we emphasised this with the Minister." He said the new limits on substitution cover could have a devastating impact on activities such as the Young Scientist competition in January.
Yesterday, vocational school managers said the decision not to support disadvantaged students in all schools is a seriously-flawed policy decision.
Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association, said the impact will be most keenly felt by the disadvantaged students "who are the real voiceless class". He said the decision to limit supports to schools designated as disadvantaged was "unfair and discriminatory, especially in the context of the State's commitment to treat all of the nation's children equally".
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) called yesterday's vote in the Dáil on class sizes a slap in the face to primary education. INTO general secretary John Carr said Government deputies who voted to increase class sizes in primary schools would have to explain their decision to school communities in every part of the country.
In continued reaction to the education cutbacks, a teacher union leader has described them as a "near-mortal" blow to the entire system. Peter Mac Menamin, general secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, said 1,200 jobs will be lost at second level next year. "Taking into account the number of classes each teacher would teach over the course of the school year, we estimate that this will result in over 1.3 million fewer classes for pupils, or 7,922 fewer per day. This staggering figure highlights just how devastating the cuts will be to our education system.
"In situations such as this, the inevitable results are the narrowing of the curriculum, the amalgamation of classes, and even the dropping of subjects.
"In an education system where we are already concerned at the low numbers of graduates in science and mathematics, this will be the death knell on our aspirations of becoming a knowledge society."
© 2008 The Irish Times
Rescind education cuts, urges C of I synod in Derry
- Published: 31 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
31st October 2008
The Bishop of Derry and Raphoe Right Rev Ken Good has said the Budget proposals break a 1968 agreement reached by the church with the State.
Following a strong and impassioned debate, synod members unanimously passed the motion, which warned that any attempt to transfer Protestant secondary schools to the fee-paying sector would be resisted strenuously.
It stated that the diocese, "while recognising the crisis in the Republic's finances, greatly deplores the proposed draconian cutbacks in education in the recent Budget, calls on the Government to reconsider the situation, and enter talks with the educational partners with a view to rescinding the cutbacks. Any attempt to transfer the Protestant voluntary secondary schools from the free scheme to the fee-paying sector is unacceptable and should be strongly resisted."
It was proposed by Sligo Grammar School principal Des West and Canon Stanley Johnson, honorary secretary of the diocese's board of education.
Bishop Good told the synod in Derry that, in these times of financial crisis "it must be questionable . . . whether citizens over 70 years of age, on the one hand, or children on the other, should find themselves among those who are expected to pay that price."
He shared "the considerable disquiet expressed by many about the implications of the Budget for schools, not least the decision to increase the pupil-teacher ratio, which will not only increase class sizes, but more significantly may reduce by several hundred the number of teachers available to deal with pupils in the classroom, in the playground and in schools' extracurricular activities.
He said that "throughout the Protestant community in the Republic of Ireland, there is much concern about the decision in the Budget to withdraw, mid-year, support services grants to many second-level schools under Protestant management. This action is, in effect, in contravention of an agreement with the Government in 1968, under which these schools were classified as within the free scheme, even though they charge fees to cover boarding costs which arise because of the dispersed nature of the Protestant population" throughout the State.
© 2008 The Irish Times
Changes to substitution cover may not work, teachers fear
- Published: 31 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
31st October 2008
THE WITHDRAWAL of substitution cover for uncertified sick leave has shaken teachers and schools to the core. Many fear that the new arrangements will be unworkable.
Malahide Community School is a large, vibrant school of 1,200 students and 80 teachers.
"I've just come from a staff meeting. There are real fears that this is going to be unmanageable," says deputy principal Patricia McDonagh.
She explains: "Last Monday was not typical, but it can happen. I came into school and I had two teachers out on long-term certified leave, three more were on short-term certified leave, one was at a meeting of the teachers' council and three were off on official school business. Then four teachers rang in sick that morning. There's a bug going around.
"Two more teachers came to me at lunchtime. They were really not feeling well and I could see that they weren't so they went home. I was left with 77 classes to cover."
The recent Budget says substitution cover will be suspended from January 2009 for absences arising from uncertified sick leave in all schools. In other words, from January, teachers who call in sick and teachers who go home feeling ill will not be entitled to substitute cover until they go to a doctor, get a medical cert and deliver it to the school.
Post-primary schools have a supervision and substitution scheme in which teachers opt to be available for supervision duties or substitution cover as a school requires.
The department is crossing its fingers and hoping these teachers will fill the substitution void.
"For the Minister to say, 'Oh, you can use your supervision and substitution' is ridiculous," says Ms McDonagh. "I can only cover 60 periods in a week with my supervision and substitution teachers. I had 77 to cover in one day on Monday. Where does that leave me?"
Dermot Curran, principal of Kilkenny CBS, says: "This will make many schools incapable of operating. The idea of a teacher calling in sick and not being entitled to a substitute is retrograde."
The only option for many schools, according to Mr Curran, will be to herd students into a hall for supervised study. "It will be up to the principal to babysit the students," says Mr Curran. "It's babysitting, it's not education and it's not the job of a principal. We are overloaded with work as it is."
The uncertified leave will also affect schools at primary level. The usual arrangement when a substitute is unavailable is to divide a class into groups and send the children into the remaining classes in the school.
Gaelscoil na Camóige in Clondalkin consists of eight classes. "I have a class of 30 in a room that's half as big as it should be," says Siobhán Ní Dhonnachdha. "If someone rings in sick, their class will have to be split between the rest of us so we'll each get five extra students into an already overcrowded class. If two people call in sick it just won't be possible."
The INTO has said children will have to be sent home in such circumstances. "No teacher wants to do that," she says. "But it's a health and safety thing."
Ms McDonagh says: "The implications of this cut are hugely insulting. I see teachers drag themselves into school rather than miss a day. Nobody wants to be absent. The work has to get done either way."
The withdrawal of cover for teachers absent on school business will be explored in this series tomorrow, but one affects the other.
"You can plan for teachers being away at matches and so on, but you can't plan for the uncertified sick leave," says Ms McDonagh.
© 2008 The Irish Times
Think outside the bubble
- Published: 31 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
31st October 2008
May I introduce the Invent-o-Pod? This plastic, soundproof bubble is large enough to place over a person, a computer and desk. (Think of one of those plastic washing balls they used to give out in laundry detergent packs, only bigger.) It allows the inventor-in-waiting a place of silence in which to create. This bubble is the modern equivalent of the inventor's garage.
Of course, trying out the new product in a challenging environment is essential before getting it to market. The post-Budget classroom provides us with the perfect testing ground. Once the teacher pushes the other 36 students out of the way, a single student can use the Invent-o-Pod for five minutes of "inventor's time" during which they tinker with a set of Government-issued tools - a broken pencil and some rusted nuts and bolts.
Who said good ideas don't occur in a bubble, or was that a vacuum?
The Government is developing a package of tax incentives and laws to attract inventors and help establish Ireland as an international centre for intellectual property, much as the IFSC is a banking and financial services centre.
This is a truly inspired idea. Jobs in research and development have more staying power than those in the rapidly shrinking manufacturing and services sectors. The trouble is that - thanks to the Budget's draconian spending cuts in education and the falling numbers of science and engineering graduates - workers from China, India and the US may largely populate the new sector.
Engineers are among the world's biggest problem solvers. They invent, discover - or help others perfect - everything from computers and mobile phones to more efficient bicycles or ways to clean clothes.
There is a worldwide engineering shortage, but some countries are producing more engineers than others. According to a 2005 report from Duke University in North Carolina, 112,000 engineers a year graduated in India; 137,437 graduated in the US; and China reported 351,537. In Ireland, we produce about 3,000 engineers annually.
If the Government is really laying the foundation for a new knowledge economy, it should ensure Irish workers provide the stable base. This can only be achieved by investment in our young people and the development of a top-class educational system in science and technology.
Ireland used to be a world leader when it came to inventing things. The Irish Patents Office says: "Throughout the centuries Ireland has proven itself as a nation of inventors with many of its natives having made important contributions to their particular field of endeavour."
We were a clever bunch. Irish inventors are responsible for: the double earpiece stethoscope (Arthur Leared); the hypodermic syringe (Francis Rynd); the nasal feeding tube and simple incubator for premature infants (Robert Collis); the first steam turbine using steam to power a rotor directly (Sir Charles Parsons); the nickel-zinc rechargeable battery (Dr James Drumm); the induction coil and self-exacting dynamo (Rev Nicholas Callan); the world's first heat exchange device (Aeneas Coffey); and the list goes on and on.
Can you name one Irish inventor today? I can't. What about the name of last year's winner of the Young Scientist competition and their invention? Um. Or the name of one of the companies spawned from university research incubators? It's on the tip of my tongue.
More than likely, you'll know the name of the person just booted off Bill Cullen's The Apprentice and the names of Ireland's top businesspeople and celebrities. No harm there, but what did they actually invent? How have they improved life for ordinary people and society? (And don't say cheap flights on Ryanair.)
Many science and technology graduates have been lured into sexier, more lucrative areas such as financial services and business. Now that these jobs are drying up the Government has an opportunity to make innovation more appealing.
Building a National Centre for Science and Discovery to celebrate the achievements of Irish scientists is commendable but it's not enough. We need a comprehensive, well-thought-out system for creating and nurturing the new breed of Irish inventor. Invent-o-Pod anyone?
Margaret E Ward is a journalist and managing director of Clear Ink, the clear English specialists. margaret@clearink.ie
© 2008 The Irish Times
