SIX SCHOOLS TO LOSE TEACHERS
...and that's just in north Wexford. Fintan Lambe looks at the effect of cuts on small rural schools
A poster in Coolgreany National School.
EDUCATION cuts announced in December's budget ' hold an axe above several small rural schools in North Wexford', it has been claimed.
This is according to Fionntán Ó Suilleabháin of the Gorey District Branch of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), which held its AGM in the Amber Springs Hotel, Gorey, recently.
Proposed higher teacher-pupil ratios could mean some 1,250 schools nationwide losing teachers, and the remaining teachers having to teach for a greater spread of classes.
Schools with four teachers or less are expected to be particularly hard hit. Under the government proposals, an estimated six small rural primary schools in north Wexford alone could lose teachers, causing massive disruption, and a further five could face closure.
The members fear that the higher pupilteacher ratios will mean the loss of significant numbers of teachers, and the remaining teachers having responsibility for more class groupings, leaving the children's education at a disadvantage.
The INTO claims that some small schools with fewer than 50 pupils would face the prospect of amalgamation or closure. ' These schools are often the heart of the rural community,' said Fionntán. 'However, as we recently saw with urban disadvantaged DEIS schools – if enough pressure is applied on their political representatives they will be forced to back down.'
It is hoped that parents, teachers and other concerned groups in Co Wexford will organise and voice their opposition to the planned cuts. Pupils from small rural schools in Longford and Westmeath staged a demonstration outside Leinster House last week, and parents in Coolgreany NS have already begun a letter writing campaign to their local TD.
The branch also passed a number of motions condemning the government's austerity programme, and its effects on the education system, and called for the Anglo bailouts to be stopped immediately.
' Threats to the Croke Park Agreement, salaries and pensions of younger members were of particular concern,' said Fionntán. 'Already, apart from the DEIS and rural schools, deep wounds have been inflicted on a very wide swathe of schools with losses of special needs assistants, resource teachers including for Traveller community children and language support teachers.'
The branch commended the INTO'S part in the recent campaign on the issue of urban DEIS disadvantaged schools, which appears to have been successful, and called on the Union leadership to 'mount a campaign of equal intensity on the issue of cuts announced to Gaelscoileanna and rural schools with four teachers or less.'
' The heart is being torn out of our education service with cuts that will devastate the future prospects of a generation of children so that those who speculate for massive profits on the financial markets are protected,' contended Mr Ó Suilleabháin.
