ANALYSIS:The full impact of the education cutbacks will only be felt in schools from this week
AT THE school gates this week, the full impact of the education cuts will begin to dawn on parents.
Many bright and energetic teachers will no longer be around. Classes, already the biggest in Europe, will be larger. In more than 100 schools, classes for special needs pupils will have disappeared. English language supports will be pared back. At second level, the range of subjects available to students will be reduced.
The Department of Education admits 400 jobs will go – 200 at primary and 200 at post-primary – because of the increase in class size. Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe says this is the “projected net outcome much later in the calendar year”, but he also concedes that job losses could reach 1,000 over a longer period.
The figure of 2,000 job losses – now accepted by school principals and managers – is a best estimate based on expected staff allocations, once the increase in class size is factored in.
The case of Edna McGorman, principal of Mary Mother of Hope National School, Littlepace, Dublin, is not unusual.
About 40 per cent of the school’s 800 children are foreign nationals. This year enrolment is up by 10 per cent, reflecting the continuing population boom along the west Dublin suburbs. But Mr McGorman will lose four teachers – one class teacher and three English language support teachers.
At St Canice’s in Finglas , Dublin, principal Brendan Kelly will lose 2½ teachers, despite the school’s disadvantaged status. This includes one mainstream teacher, one language support teacher and a teacher shared with a local girls’ school.
“People say it’s back to the 1980s,” Kelly says, “but it is much worse because our enrolment figures are rising . . . What I feel sorry for is the special needs or language support kids who got some special help but are now forced into mainstream classes where they will struggle.”
At second level, the picture is similar. Most of the 700 or so schools in the State will lose at least one teacher.
This week, Kevin Whyte, president of the Principals and Deputy Principals Association of the Teachers Union of Ireland, predicted the possible demise of programmes such as the Leaving Certificate Applied as the cuts bite.
The applied has been widely praised for helping to keep children in schools after Junior Cert.
He also said the reduction in teacher allocation meant there would be insufficient hours to cover the subjects once offered to students – and could mean the possible loss of subjects like physics, chemistry, art and music in some schools.
At second level, fee-paying schools will be squeezed by the combined impact of much larger classes and the Government’s decision to abolish special supports in place since 1966.
Several of these schools have released some temporary staff over the summer and many will not be returning this autumn.
The imponderable now is whether the teaching unions can once again mobilise the support of the public in their campaign against the cuts. The deep well of public support was evident in December when 100,000 people took to the streets in the biggest education protest in the history of the State. The protest outside Government Buildings reflected seething anger at the Budget cuts.
But as the cuts take effect, can the protests be ratcheted up again?
Batt O’Keeffe is hoping the campaign of protest has “shot its bolt”. He will be appealing – over the heads of the teacher unions – directly to the public urging us all to accept our share of the pain.
But the scatter-gun nature of the cuts – targeting special needs and cutting supports for a dizzying array of groups – is certain to draw criticism and protest across a huge spectrum.
At the annual Michael Collins commemoration at Beál na mBláth last week, former president Mary Robinson said she was not surprised to hear of resistance to cuts in spending on education.
“We still lag behind many of the European partners in terms of class size and facilities.”
Ways must be found to protect the quality of our education, she said, and the goal of achieving access for all to education.
In the end, it may be this kind of moral pressure – more than another round of public
protests – which could force the Government to rescind some of the education cuts.
