MORE THAN 2,000 teaching posts are set to be lost in primary and second level schools during the forthcoming school year as Government education cutbacks take effect.
An Irish Times survey of school managers, principals and teaching unions this week found widespread consensus on the scale of job losses.
Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe maintains that only 240 jobs will go in both primary and second-level schools. In recent weeks he has acknowledged that 1,000 jobs could go over a longer period.
Schools say most of the teachers they are losing are young, recently qualified graduates, working on temporary contracts. Most now face unemployment or emigration.
As the education cuts begin to bite, INTO general secretary John Carr said yesterday that an average of 500 people are applying for every teaching vacancy in primary schools.
The union says the vast majority of the 2,000 students who graduated from teacher training this summer are also looking for work.
The scale of the job losses will not be clear until late next month, when schools know their precise allocations for special needs, language supports and other supports. There is a consensus among school leaders that the job losses will vastly exceed the Department of Education forecast.
The losses will be greater in private fee-paying schools because of the additional increase in class size in these schools. School principals say there has been no fall-off in demand for places in well-known fee-paying schools, despite fees of over €6,000.
Marion Healy, principal of Alexandra College, said the school was introducing more staggered payments and not increasing fees because of the downturn. “We are losing some girls because their parents are in financial difficulty, something which I hugely regret.”
Earlier this year, the college’s decision to remove a Junior Cert pupil over non-payment of fees attracted widespread criticism.
The teaching jobs are being lost because of the decision by Mr O’Keeffe to increase the pupil-teacher ratio; this will mean larger classes and fewer teachers.
In the budget, the pupil-teacher ratio for primary schools was increased from 27 to 28. At second-level schools it increased to 19:1 for “free” State schools and 20:1 for fee-paying schools.
School principals and managers interviewed by The Irish Times this week warn of an education system “reverting back to the 1980s”. They say the cuts will mean:
* The closure of over 100 special needs classes;
* A reduction in the choice of Leaving and Junior Cert subjects available to students;
* A 25 per cent drop in the number of English language support teachers for newcomer children;
* The abolition of the free books scheme in non-disadvantaged schools, and
* The loss in some schools of Transition Year because of a cut in supports.
While the increase in class sizes and other cuts provoked huge public demonstrations last winter, the full impact will only be felt in the forthcoming school year.
