Since the start of the recession Fianna Fail, Labour & Fine Gael have implemented cuts on all sectors including Education. Despite election promises to burn the bond holders & to renegotiate the IMF deal Fine Gael & Labour continue to implement cuts and stealth taxes rather than live up to their promises. Education is the cornerstone of this country and it needs investment so our kids and our young generation have a future, we do not need cuts & broken promises.
So when Fianna Fail, Labour & Fine Gael call to your door with their outreached hands & ear to ear beaming smiles, remember the following:
In November 2010, the government outlined EUR690 million in education cuts as part of its four-year plan. These included a five per cent cut to primary level capitation, a reduction in teacher numbers, cuts in student grants and an increase in the third level student capitation fee to EUR2,000…
Returning to primary education, the national average class size is 25 but almost a third of children are now in class sizes of 30 or more. In some cases, children are in class sizes of 35 plus. Meanwhile, the EU average Primary school class size is 20. The pupil-teacher ratio remained unchanged as a result of this year’s Budget but it has been warned that this won’t remain the case if further savings have to be made in future budgets.
There have been reduced capitation grants for primary and secondary schools – meaning some services have had to be scaled back or removed. Some small national schools around the country are being affected by cuts in teacher numbers. The INTO (Irish National Teachers Organisation) says this is a policy to forcibly amalgamate some small schools. There have been reductions in the numbers of language support teachers and resource teachers at Primary school level…
These cuts, coupled with mounting pressure from the Department of Education on schools to implement the Literacy and Numeracy strategy while not providing the funds to fully implement same, are putting huge pressures on school leaders. Enough is enough!
