Green leader defends his support of education cutbacks
- Published: 29 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
STEPHEN COLLINS and HARRY McGEE
GREEN Party leader John Gormley warned last night the country was "staring into an economic abyss". He was defending his party's decision to support education cuts in a crucial Dáil vote tomorrow despite opposition from some of his own party councillors.
His comments came as Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe ruled out a climbdown on education cuts and insisted people would have to accept pain now, otherwise "we will have no economy in two years time".
Mr O'Keeffe will meet the Green Party to discuss the wording of a Government amendment to a Labour motion calling for a reversal of the decision to increase the pupil- teacher ratio.
The Dáil debate on the motion will begin this evening at 7 and continue tomorrow morning with a vote at noon.
Teachers are planning a demonstration outside Leinster House tonight to coincide with the debate.
A meeting of Green Party TDs, Senators and councillors in Dublin yesterday agreed to back the Government in the Dáil vote. Afterwards, Mr Gormley insisted his party would play its part in shaping a counter motion.
"Before Christmas, we are looking at further drops in revenue," he said. "If that happens, we are in a situation where most of us will have to face up to responsibilities. That means everybody, everybody in the public sector and the politicians.
Dublin Green Party councillor Bronwen Maher said later the message communicated by Mr Gormley was the clearest signal yet that the Green Party's role in government was permanent yet ill-defined.
"It also tells me that the party has no bottom line or any clearly defined point where it can morally or politically say enough is enough."
She added that yesterday's meeting had "failed to tackle the elephant in the room which is our spiralling public sector pay bill".
Earlier Mr O'Keeffe ruled out any row-back on proposed cuts in education and stressed the dangerous state of public finances.
"If we don't make tough decisions, we will be back to the 1980s where the hard decisions were deferred for 10 years," he said. "I want to take a step back now to take two steps forward. He pointed out that 80 per cent of the money in the education budget went to pay the salaries and pensions of teachers and special needs assistants.
Labour Party leader Éamon Gilmore said last night that never before had a budget unleashed such a wave of public anger.
"Never before has a budget been as ill-judged or poorly thought-out. Never before has a government retreated so rapidly from key budgetary proposals," Mr Gilmore said.
"It is hard to see how the Greens will retain any political credibility if they troop through the lobbies with Fianna Fáil and the PDs on Thursday," he told party members in Trinity College.
"Will they stand with the pupils, parents and teachers in opposition to these cuts or will they vote in favour of measures that will do untold damage to our education system?" asked Mr Gilmore.
Primary education groups unite to criticise 'shameful' cutbacks
- Published: 29 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
SEÁN FLYNN, Education Editor
THE CAMPAIGN against the education cuts gained further momentum yesterday as 10 groups involved in primary education united to criticise the "shameful and immoral" cutbacks.
The National Alliance for Primary Education - an umbrella group representing school managers, principals, parents and teachers - described the Budget cuts as "a full-fronted attack on children and young people, and as intensely damaging to Ireland's future".
Paul Rowe of Educate Together said the deliberate targeting of the most vulnerable children was "shameful and immoral".
The group has exhorted all of those with an interest in education to support today's Dáil protest.
Privately, education lobby groups expect the Government to win Thursday's critical Dáil vote on the education cutbacks.
But yesterday Declan Kelleher, president, the INTO, stressed: "We are ready for the long haul on this campaign right up to the local and European elections and it is our intention to fully expose those behind these cuts for what they have tried to do to the education of our four to 12-year-olds."
While the Government may survive the Dáil vote, it still faces the prospect of school closures and children being sent home from next January, when the new limits on teacher substitution cover are implemented.
Seán Cottrell of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) said teachers would be very reluctant to close schools, but they also had a duty of care to students.
Mr Rowe said primary school managers were seeking legal advice on the issue of school closures in January.
The National Alliance said that the Budget measures would drive up the average class size to unacceptable levels, the financial shortfall would make schools far more difficult to run and the withdrawal of key supports and services would have "devastating consequences" for children who were already disadvantaged.
Mr Kelleher added: "The range and scale of the proposed cuts in frontline services and funding shows a complete lack of understanding as to how Irish classrooms and schools operate today."
He said the "devastating proposal to increase class sizes" must be resisted by all involved in education "for the sake of the pupils in our care".
The organisations forming the National Alliance are: An Foras Pátrúnachta; the Catholic Primary School Management Association; the Church of Ireland Board of Education; Eagraíocht na Scoileanna Gaeltachta Teo; Educate Together; Gaelscoileanna; the INTO; the IPPN; the National Association of Management Bodies in Special Education and the National Parents' Council - Primary. Dónall Ó Conaill of Foras Pátrúnachta said the Government should focus on other ways of saving money besides "the ill-advised decision to row back on the achievements of recent years in education".
Brian Hayes of Fine Gael yesterday called on Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe to verify his claim that only 200 teaching posts would be lost in primary schools because of budget cuts.
The INTO has released data showing that 1,000 teaching posts would go.
© 2008 The Irish Times
'We will try to minimise the effects, but there is only so much we can do'
- Published: 29 October 2008
Source : Irish Times
GRÁINNE FALLER
TARGETING THE LITTLE PEOPLE : Exploring the fallout from the education cuts
"THE SIZE of your class affects everything. After all the years of reducing class sizes - promising us a pupil teacher ratio of 20 to one for the under-nines - to turn around and actually increase it to 28 to one is unbelievable."
Siobhán Ní Dhonnachdha, who teaches second class in Gaelscoil na Camóige in Clondalkin, currently has 30 students in her class.
"We're in ancient prefabs, but that's beside the point," she says. "Smaller numbers mean fewer discipline problems in a class. Even the general noise level is lower.
"A teacher has more of an opportunity to help the weaker students and provide for the stronger students. I really notice the difference when a couple of my students are out. You can give more attention to individual children. It's hugely important."
The primary school curriculum places great emphasis on the use of concrete materials and group work to aid learning.
Ní Dhonnachdha says: "How can you do that when so many children are squashed into a small classroom? I don't have the space in my class to store materials, let alone the space to enable children to use them. They introduced the new curriculum but they don't allow us to implement it."
Her dismay is shared by Peter Woods, principal of Holy Trinity National School in Mervue, Galway. The school was due to lose a teacher because of a slight drop in numbers. Now because of the new pupil-teacher ratio, he is going to lose another.
At primary level, one teacher will be appointed for every 28 students rather than the current situation of one for every 27, resulting in 200 fewer teachers at the beginning of the next school year than in September 2008, according to the Department of Education.
Woods, who will also lose four of his six language-support teachers, is exasperated.
"I have done my utmost to keep classes small in this school," he says. "The most we have in any class is 25. We are a disadvantaged school and small classes really give children the best chance to learn. I have no idea how I'm going to keep numbers down, but I absolutely have to find a teacher from somewhere . . . If you offered me €50,000 of funding or a teacher, I would take a teacher every time."
At post-primary level, the student-teacher ratio has been raised from 18 to one to 19 to one. The Department of Education believes that this will result in 200 fewer teachers in the system. The TUI says 1,200 teaching posts will go.
Principal of Castleknock Community College John Cronin agrees that the department has miscalculated and says the impact of the increase will be huge.
"The naivety of them to think that this increase is a simple matter of an extra student in each class is unbelievable," he says. "They simply do not understand how a secondary school works."
Cronin is set to lose four teachers.
"It will impact on class size, of course. We have an open enrolment policy so we have students with special needs such as Down syndrome and Asperger's syndrome. This will certainly affect the quality of their teaching and learning. We will try to minimise the effects, of course, but there is only so much we can do."
Dermot Curran, principal of Kilkenny CBS, expects to lose two or three teachers as a result of the increase. This may have serious repercussions for the range of subject options that the school will be able to provide to students. "We will have to cut back," he says. "We won't be able to cater for students who want to do the less popular subjects."
Cronin agrees. "We've been encouraged to promote the sciences but now we might have to look at reducing the choice for students in that respect. Less popular subjects such as German, accountancy are equally important."
"It is going to interfere with every teacher's ability to do their jobs," says Ní Dhonnachdha. "But I really think the emphasis should be on the students in this. This will affect their chance to learn. They are the ones targeted and they should be the focus."
Should the Government row back on its planned cutbacks in education?
- Published: 29 October 2008
Source : Irish Times - View Results
News Poll : Should the Government row back on its planned cutbacks in education?
Your Reaction
AFFIRMATIVE. UNFORTUNATELY, A GOOD EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM FAILS THE "INSTANT GRATIFICATION" TEST! I said it yesterday and I reiterate. Government is only interested in keeping the peasants in a state of instant euphoria. And a ling term expanse like the proper funding of an educational system doesn't fit into the plans. It's cash in the hand which motivates the instant gratification seekers. They want the Endorphin rush, and they want it NOW. Education and a delayed gratification culture is alien to the Irish who, as statistics prove, are one of the most addictive prone societies in the Western world. Unfortunately, this sad social disease in easily passed from one generation to the next. Parents, often little more that children themselves, are often the purveyors of the Alcohol and drugs which current numb the minds of prepubescent teens. Many parents distain the idea of individual responsibility and self discipline. They make up the enormous numbers, who left school early, or didn't even attend and heeded the call of the pied piper of drink and mind altering drugs. Alas, the Irish government sees little need to combat this dysfunctional behaviour because it keeps the minions under control. Mass education is the worst threat to a government bent on keeping the populace from challenging the higher echelon and preventing a popular uprising. So, at the end of the day, Education will fall into a derelict state while welfare payments continue to promote the culture of "do nothing productive and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow". HOO RAH!
eddie- the Aggravator
Yes. Vincent Browne says it well in today's IT "I suspect there is another problem: absence of coherent, thought-through political ideas and in the absence of those there are no guidelines on how to distribute the pain, what to prioritise, what to protect. Political ideas such as: first do justice, then do economics." My opinion: these cutbacks may be needed to deal with our €10-15 Bn budget deficit. However, to impose them while we are providing massive subsidies to property developers and builders absolutely stinks. Take the Affordable Homes Initiative.The homes were overvalued by the property developers, sold at a "discount" to the State and now are worth even less than the "discounted" price the State paid for them. In many areas the open market price is less than the price under the Affordable Homes Initiative !!! Disgusting. FF are no more than the political wing of property developer and builders.
john Ireland
Yes in the land of scholars it should not be a vicious "Catch 23," Sure we know one size does not fit all ,but we had no problem of late worldwide with social welfare for the rich.Its a pay now ,or we'll all pay latter.Lets for a change try walking a mile in the disadvantaged guys shoes.
paorach Canada
FG suggest a teacher pay freeze instead of school cuts
- Published: 29 October 2008
Source : Irish Independent
By Aine Kerr Political Correspondent
Wednesday October 29 2008
PROTESTING teachers earning over €50,000 will be told this evening to accept a short-term pay freeze in a bid to create savings of €128m and reverse some of the harshest education cuts.
Fine Gael's call on all public servants, including teachers, to go without their 3.5pc increase next September was deemed a "hard-sell" by the party's education spokesman Brian Hayes last night.
But he insisted that in order to maintain class sizes and reverse the substitution cutbacks, savings had to be found elsewhere.
The pay freeze proposal, which has already been dismissed by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, could generate a negative reaction from the thousands of teachers expected to converge on the Dail this evening if Mr Hayes follows through on his pledge to outline his tough stance.
"There is an issue of credibility here. The Opposition have got to come up with a means of making savings and what we're saying is that we're prioritising the front line, we don't want to see a rise in class sizes," he said.
"The way you do that is to say difficult things to the public sector, to people earning over €50,000. It's only going to be for a year, year-and-a-half that they wouldn't receive the 3.5pc. I've no problem in saying that. There's colossal savings we can make within the department but there's difficult medicine to be taken on the salary side."
Asked if he would actually stand by this proposal in the face of thousands of protesting teachers outside the Dail this evening, Mr Hayes said he would explain the proposal, if given the opportunity.
"People know our position and they're not too happy about it I suspect," he said.
"But the great majority of teachers I speak to want to keep the pressure on class size. They recognise that in mixed ability classrooms now -- often with children with educational difficulties -- you've got to keep classes as low as possible. And I think people will ultimately make a sacrifice."
Following the protests of 25,000 senior citizens and students last week, Mr Hayes predicted that an "extraordinary number" of students, teachers and parents would mount a protest during the Labour Party's motion on class sizes.
"Parents are genuinely up in arms over this particular issue, not just on the loss of teachers but the radical reduction in English language teachers," he said.
With the Green Party playing for time yesterday and pledging support to their coalition partners on the education cuts, Mr Hayes claimed the Green's education spokesman Paul Gogarty was "all over the place" with his proposals.
"He hasn't put forward cogent savings that can take place in education. We have. We've said hard things to every public servant earning over €50,000," he said.
Credibility
"We are suggesting they wouldn't get their 3.5pc pay rise next September. That's going to be difficult to sell. We know that but at least we are credible in what we said in advance of the Budget."
Last week, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dail that other education savings should be found, including in salaries.
"A pay freeze on those earning above €50,000 within the teaching sector would save in the region of €128 million, thereby allowing the continuation of the current pupil-teacher ratio, the appointment of language support teachers and resource teachers, cover for sick leave and the visits to Dail Eireann and the sporting activities which are so important to the lives of children all over the country," Mr Kenny said.
