IPPN

Published: 30 October 2008

Source : Irish Examiner

Cold and rain fails to dampen anger of 12,000 protesters

By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
THE cold and rain failed to deter about 12,000 people from voicing their anger over education cutbacks outside Leinster House last night.


The suggestion by Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe that teacher unions were just looking after their own interests was strongly rejected by speakers representing parents and school managers.

Jim Moore, president of the National Parents' Council-Post Primary, said he wanted the minister to know that parents would not stand by and allow their children suffer under the proposed budget cuts.



"No parent here wants to lessen the chance of their children getting the best opportunity to an excellent education in this country," he said.

Catholic Primary School Managers' Association general secretary, Eileen Flynn, said it was unfair to ask children who had no part in the economic downturn to pay the price.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) vice-president, Joe Moran, said parents, school managers and teachers oppose the cuts as a duty to young people.

He said Ireland is consistently in the top rankings for educational attainment, despite our near-bottom spending on education for second-level students relative to national wealth.

"This high achievement from basic resources is a precarious balance but there is a tipping point and the proposed cutbacks are that tipping point," he said.

One teacher likely to lose her job because of the class size changes said she travelled from Tipperary because of the impact it would have on her current pupils.

"I'll be able to get another job, hopefully, but the point is that there are going to be five extra kids in every class in the school," said Tracy Lonergan, who works at Killenaule National School in Co Tipperary.

As well as teachers and parents, school managers also warned of the impact the education cuts would have.

"If the minister continues to refuse to sit down with us, we're going to have to consider sending children home in some schools, that just can't happen," said Ferdia Kelly, general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body, representing 400 second-level school boards.

What other groups said

"CUTTING the funding will mean more Traveller children will not have the basic requirements to participate in schools. Cutting this budget so severely, without consultation, is an attack on the most vulnerable in our education system and not acceptable.

"It is a knee-jerk reaction to save money."

— Irish Traveller Movement, in response to the halving of extra funding given to schools for every Traveller pupil.

"These cuts will hit the most vulnerable groups in society. Now 500 people won't be able to avail of the Back to Education Initiative, arguably to make very little savings.

"These cutbacks will cripple the priorities that this government has already identified: combating disadvantage, training, upskilling and integration."

— AONTAS, the National Adult Learning Organisation.

"Many of these cuts will result in children going without or parents picking up the tab. Either way, it is unfair and fails children.

"They are contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and in breach of the Government's Towards 2016 commitments."

— Children's Rights Alliance.

"Disadvantaged students are the voiceless class and, in terms of equity, the policy decision not to ring-fence the disadvantaged students in all schools is seriously flawed.

"The withdrawal of certain funding targeting disadvantage in non-DEIS schools is to condemn those students because of their geographical location, this is both unfair and discriminatory."

— Irish Vocational Education Association, representing Vocational Education Committees (VECs).

"The proposed cuts represent a severe blow to the children in our education system, they are a withdrawal of vital investment in the future of our economy. They are a very crude measure for saving money, and a regressive step in the development of education."

— IMPACT trade union which represents school secretaries, special needs assistants and school completion officers.

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Published: 30 October 2008

Source : Irish Examiner

By Caroline O'Doherty
TEACHERS normally discourage telling tales out of school, but the crowd who gathered to protest against education cuts were agog to hear what Joe O'Toole had to say.

The independent senator, who himself used to wear a layer of chalk dust, had his ear to the ground in Leinster House all day listening to the occupants delude themselves about the gathering storm outside.

"They were saying you won't turn out in the wind and the rain and the cold," Joe confided in the 12,000 standing in the street, enduring those very afflictions. "They were hoping you wouldn't turn out. They were praying you wouldn't turn out. But you did turn out. You came here, you saw them and you will conquer them."

Outside the Dáil last night rules such keeping voices down and refraining from speaking all at once were chucked out the classroom window. The teachers, parents and hundreds of children who crammed onto Molesworth Street were in the mood to conquer. They had already overcome the weather, the contingent from Donegal braving snow storms, hail and ice-rink roads to get there.

And they were nothing if not prepared for the cruel elements, with sturdy trade union placards of heavy duty card — perfect for doubling as shelters to escape the worst of the freezing rain.

Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe was the subject of many of the slogans they carried. "No More Batt-y Cuts", "Don't Batt-er Our Children", "O'Keeffe Is Batts" were just some of the pointed messages.

He was portrayed as a blood-sucking Hallowe'en bat, made star of his own scary movie and blamed for cranking up the murder machine while over the public address system blared the Manic Street Preachers anthem, If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next.

Mary Hurley, principal of the three-teacher, 75-pupil Doora National School in Co Clare was clear why she would not tolerate the cuts. "My main concern is the withdrawal of substitute cover. If a teacher goes sick, we'll have to split 75 children between the remaining two and no child is going to be educated properly in those circumstances."

With her was Margaret McCarthy and her 12-year-old son, Brian, who attends Inch NS, also in Co Clare. "He only has a year left to go, but he won't get this year back if the cuts go ahead and hurt his education. You only get one chance at your education."

Principal of the 142-pupil school Rosemarie Corry said it had lost €2,000 in grants since the cuts were announced and, as the teacher of a class of 33 pupils, she was furious at the prospect of trying to care for ten more any time a teacher was sick.

"Once this starts, next year there will be another cut and the next year more again. It's very frustrating when all we want is to do a good job for the children."

Second-level schools were vocal too. Alan Thompson, teacher at the 800-pupil Abbey Vocational School in Donegal town, was one of those who battled the snow to get to the protest, determined not to accept cuts to the Leaving Cert Applied and Junior Cert Schools Programme for less academically gifted students.

"They're going after the most disadvantaged students which is absolutely appalling and I don't accept the assurances that it's only temporary. It's not good enough for the Government to say that we should just grin and bear it for two years until the economy improves — the consequences for a child can last a lifetime."

Joan Mulvihill, principal of 257-pupil Convent Primary School in Listowel, Co Kerry, used to like maths before she did her sums and realised the cuts would lose her three of her 19 teachers. She's also been waiting for the cheque in the post for learning support equipment and now knows it's not arriving.

"All we want is fair play for the children. I'm angry at Batt O'Keeffe but he isn't alone in this. He's doing what he's told. Well, I'm a teacher and, never mind what I usually say to the kids, sometimes you shouldn't do what you're told."

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Published: 30 October 2008

Source : Irish Examiner

By Paul O'Brien, Political Correspondent
NO Green party members turned up for Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe's defence of the education cutbacks in the Dáil last night.

The opposition claimed the issue would be the Greens' "Stalingrad", because they are supporting the cutbacks even though improvements in education formed a key aspect of the party's manifesto.

The Greens were conspicuous by their absence as Mr O'Keeffe sparred with the opposition on the cutbacks.

Instead, fellow Fianna Fáil ministers and TDs supported Mr O'Keeffe.

Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes criticised the Greens' absence and singled out the party's education spokesman, Paul Gogarty, for criticism.

"This is the Greens' Stalingrad. They will never come back from this because they made such promises in advance of the last election."

Mr Gogarty and Green deputy leader Mary White are expected to speak on the issue when the debate resumes in the Dáil today.

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Published: 30 October 2008

Source : Irish Examiner

By Paul O'Brien, Political Correspondent
FINE GAEL has urged Taoiseach Brian Cowen to implement a public sector pay freeze in order to avoid the damaging education cutbacks.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dáil yesterday that a pay freeze on public servants earning more than €50,000 a year would save €300 million and prevent the "mayhem" in classrooms that the cutbacks would cause.

"That money would save all of the services that are to be cut, namely books for Travellers, language resource teachers, resource teachers and cover and substitution where required," said Mr Kenny.

"In that way, the Government would not inflict, by deliberate short-sightedness, absolute mayhem on schools nor cause consternation for parents all over the country."

But Mr Cowen gave no indication that the Government would consider such a pay freeze. And he refused to accept Fine Gael's argument that the cutbacks would cause massive damage.

"On the question of finding savings, we are suggesting going back to the teaching schedule of September 2007," said Mr Cowen.

"I do not accept the contention that the proposed changes will put children at an irreversible disadvantage or lead to a drastic reduction in service. We are talking about going back to the situation that pertained in 2007, which itself was far better than preceding years."

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore criticised the Government for giving "two different messages" on the issue in recent days.

While Fianna Fáil had insisted the cutbacks would proceed as planned, their Green partners had claimed they would seek changes.

"The Green party has apparently decided to send Deputy Paul Gogarty to negotiate with the Minister for Education," said Mr Gilmore.

"It must be the first time that a party in government has sent a backbencher to renegotiate measures already agreed by its ministers in government."

He asked the Taoiseach to clarify exactly what the situation was, and when Mr Cowen made clear there would be no changes, Mr Gilmore said: "There is not a fig-leaf, whether organic or genetically modified, to cover the political embarrassment of the Green Party.

"The Taoiseach's Green Party colleagues... are telling parents they will negotiate changes in the education cuts... However, it is clear from the Taoiseach's reply that the Government's position and that of the Minister for Education is that there will be no change."

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