Over 6,900 jobs may be cut in education
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AN INDUSTRIAL relations nightmare will be on the cards if any of the proposed controversial cuts in education come to fruition.
That is according to INTO spokesperson Sean O Dubhlaing, speaking after the publication of the long-awaited McCarthy Report.
Education has been targeted for the biggest jobs hit with over 6,900 jobs in education proposed to be axed.
Other contentious measures proposed include rural school closures through amalgamations and mergers and longer working hours for teachers as well as a reduction in Special Needs Assistants by up to 2,000 and English language support teachers by 1,000 in a bid to save ¤746 million annually.
'I would be dismayed and disappointed and disgusted at some of the comments. The people who wrote the report were not familiar with the primary education system,' said an annoyed Seán.
Increasing the pupil-teacher ratio in second-level schools would bring in ¤50m, with proposals to increase the ratio to 29:1 at primary level and to 20:1 in secondary schools.
'The worrying thing is the class size issue – what did we march for last Christmas? Why did 120,000 people take to the streets of Dublin? We weren't marching for pay cuts. Colm McCarthy is 65 or 66 years old and you get the usual rubbish like "when I was in school you had 60 in a classroom" – it was a different era in education for him,' added Sean.
'The ordinary kid in the ordinary classroom – they are entitled to have a good class size. Kids are not born in nice bundles of 27 and 29. I know we have to be flexible, but let's live in the real world,' he said, adding that he feels there are more inefficiencies at third level compared to primary level.
'If there was a problem with inefficiencies at primary school level then what are the Inspectors, Board of Management and Principals doing?' he said.
One of the key areas that caught that attention of Elma Sutton, the Principal of Michael Street National School was also the pupil teacher ratio.
'Each extra child makes it more difficult – the children that have always suffered in big classrooms are kids who find school difficult – if you increase the numbers in classrooms and they will suffer more,' she said. Michael Street National School in New Ross is hoping to retain their two muchneeded language support teachers in September never mind the thought of possibly losing such a position as recommended in the Bord Snip report. 'Most of the foreign nationals have no English when they start school and we need the language support teachers for them,' said Elma.
'Primary schools are the tightest to run – if the rest of country were run as tight as primary schools we wouldn't be in the mess we are in at the moment,' she added, while Sean believes that if any of the suggestions in the report were implemented the government would have to deal with industrial action 'nightmare'.
'People will not take this lying down,' he added.
- Elaine FURLONG
