Ten organisations involved in the State’s primary schools today demanded that “shameful and immoral” Budget cuts in education be withdrawn and called for maximum support at a protest in Dublin tomorrow.
At a press conference this morning the partners making up the National Alliance for Primary Education condemned the cuts in as “a full-fronted attack on children and young people, and as intensely damaging to Ireland’s future”. The statement came ahead of a Dáil vote tomorrow night.
The primary organisations said the 32 cuts, 16 of them in the primary sector, 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 already suffering from disadvantage.
The groups have organised a protest outside Dáil Eireann tomorrow at 6.30pm. The rally will coincide with a vote on a Labour Party motion on the proposed education cuts.
Condemning the Government's Budget measures, Declan Kelleher, president of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), said: "The range and scale of the proposed cuts in front-line 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”.
Announcing a series of INTO-organised protests on Saturdays in the run-up to Christmas, Mr Kelleher said: "It is the potential damage to the interests of the child that has stirred the entire education community in this country to action.
"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," Mr Kelleher warned.
"The race horse industry . . . lost what is, relatively, a couple of cents in the Budget. It would seem that race horses are valued more than our primary school children."
The INTO rallies are to begin in Galway on November 8th and will include protests in Tullamore, Cork, and Donegal, culminating in a national rally in Dublin on December 6th.
Speaking earlier today, however, the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, said the Government could have opted for a 3 per cent across the board cut in education. "Let's go back to the 2007 figure. During that time the roof didn't cave in", said Mr O'Keeffe.
The organisations that held today’s press conference were: An Foras Pátrúnachta; the Catholic Primary School Management Association; Church of Ireland Board of Education; Eagraíocht na Scoileanna Gaeltachta Teo; Educate Together; Gaelscoileanna; Irish National Teachers’ Organisation; Irish Primary Principals’ Network; National Association of Management Bodies in Special Education; and the National Parents’ Council – Primary.
Donall O Conaill of Foras Patrunachta na Scoileanna Lan-ghaeilge Teo, said the should focused on other ways of saving money besides “the ill-advised decision to row back on the achievements of recent years in Education”.
Eileen Flynn, general secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association, said: “The children of today are the adults of tomorrow. Cuts as announced effect every child in every class now. “Targeting the vulnerable, the disadvantaged, the newcomer guarantees greater costs to the taxpayer into the future.
Paul Rowe of Educate Together added: “We are in favour of increasing efficiency but these cuts will prove counterproductive and costly. Balancing the State’s books at the expense of children is itself deeply offensive but the deliberate targeting of the most vulnerable children, is shameful and immoral."
He continued: "We feel that the Government should seriously examine efficiencies and waste in back-office functions in the public service and in education rather than pursuing this very irresponsible cut in front-line services."
Mr Rowe said there were "extensive opportunities" for cutting costs, such as in the waste of "vast sums" in providing temporary, prefabricated buildings rather than permanent ones, and reforming the way in which grants are paid to schools.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said today this will be a “defining week” for the State’s education system as the Dáil prepares to debate his party’s motion condemning the education cuts.
Addressing the Trinity College branch of the Labour Party, Mr Gilmore said: “This is indeed a defining moment in our political history as is clear from the unprecedented wave of opposition to measures directed against the poor, the elderly and our children have shown."
He added that it would also be a defining week for the Green Party. ”It is hard to see how the Greens will retain any political credibility if they troop through the lobbies with Fianna Fail and the PDs on Thursday.”
The Budget changes include the increase in class sizes from 27 to 28, which will result in a cut of teacher numbers; the loss of teaching posts from schools that are no longer designated as disadvantaged; and a new ceiling of a maximum of two-language support teachers for most schools.
A spokesman for the Minister for Education has insisted that only 200 posts will be lost in the State's 3,300 national schools.