Sir, – Further to “Most schools rely on cash reserves to cover basic costs” (News, June 4th), the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) is quite rightly protesting about the underfunding of schools, primary schools in particular. However, the article says that the CPSMA “supports” about 85 per cent of all primary schools in the country. More accurately, the CPSMA manages these schools on behalf of the various Catholic diocese which usually owns the land on which they are built. Indeed, the CPSMA manages several, in many cases all, the primary schools within small, densely populated urban areas, and in rural Ireland, exacerbating and perpetuating inequalities and competition for scarce community resources.
The State has long abdicated its responsibility for the education of children in deploying management until recently, almost exclusively, to church bodies. Scant State funding has always discriminated against disadvantaged areas where parental resources are less. What a school has to offer often depends on what can be raised through “voluntary” contributions and parental fundraising. Additional Deis funding to a minority of schools has never been enough to bridge the resource gap with more affluent areas.
The current cost of living crisis is affecting more and more schools but it is not new to many, such as Scoil Mhuire in Ballyboden, which have lived on their nerves for years. It is a disgrace that the Minister for Education points to the pathetic increase in capitation and larger funding package for schools. Capitation has long been inadequate and a contributor to educational inequalities.
With schools catering for ever increasing numbers of children in homelessness and from war-torn countries, a complete reform of school management and funding must now be considered. – Yours, etc,
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ANNE McCLUSKEY,
Dublin 24.