Sir, – It is obvious now that the Department of Education and the Minister for Education have little understanding of the logistics of running a school or of the level of essential support services necessary to help students, following the decision to make career guidance teachers part of the normal staffing allocation.
The loss of this allocation is extremely serious. School management is now faced with the impossible choice of trying to maintain some of the essential guidance/counselling provision in the school or of removing important and essential subjects and programmes from the timetable, due to the underhand and cynical change by the Minister to the pupil-teacher ratio in second-level schools. This change means that schools have less teaching staff and as a result many will find it impossible to maintain their level of class sizes, subject options, counselling, pastoral care and separate classes for higher, ordinary levels and foundation level students in the future.
The decision by the Minister for Education to re-examine the effects of the Budget cutbacks on DEIS schools is very welcome, but it does nothing for the many other schools that are also working and educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds. These schools have managed (without specialist resourcing or support) to date thanks to the commitment and hard work of the teaching staff, but it seems they are now expected to manage without the expertise of guidance teachers, who provide a crucial services to all students.
Indeed, making career guidance teachers part of the normal teacher allocation seems most unfair as it not only undermines the work of guidance teachers but highlights the fact that there is no real vision in the Department of Education when it comes to helping and supporting students in schools.
It is time for the Minister to engage with the educational partners to work out a better and fairer way of making the necessary adjustments to the education budget so that the most vulnerable and weakest within the education system will not be disadvantaged further. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s admission that his budget decision regarding disadvantaged schools was a mistake which he will reverse, is a very welcome breath of fresh air in politics.
Sadly, I’m now waiting to see which journalist will be first to hit the “U-turn” button. – Yours, etc,