MINISTER for Education Batt O'Keeffe was warned of potential chaos in schools from next January. But he ruled out any U-turn on the Budget education measures in discussions yesterday with the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI).
The 90-minute meeting was the first between the Minister and any of the main education groups since the Budget. School managers have warned they will have little option but to send pupils home because of the new limits on teacher substitution cover, which begin on January 7th next.
A department spokesman acknowledged that schools would face difficulties in January. He said the Minister was asking schools to co-operate in the national interest.
John White, general secretary of the ASTI, said he had forcefully told the Minister how the Budget would severely curtail many aspects of school life. "Second-level school managers have clearly stated that there will be chaos in schools from January if these cuts go ahead and we emphasised this with the Minister." He said the new limits on substitution cover could have a devastating impact on activities such as the Young Scientist competition in January.
Yesterday, vocational school managers said the decision not to support disadvantaged students in all schools is a seriously-flawed policy decision.
Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association, said the impact will be most keenly felt by the disadvantaged students "who are the real voiceless class". He said the decision to limit supports to schools designated as disadvantaged was "unfair and discriminatory, especially in the context of the State's commitment to treat all of the nation's children equally".
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) called yesterday's vote in the Dáil on class sizes a slap in the face to primary education. INTO general secretary John Carr said Government deputies who voted to increase class sizes in primary schools would have to explain their decision to school communities in every part of the country.
In continued reaction to the education cutbacks, a teacher union leader has described them as a "near-mortal" blow to the entire system. Peter Mac Menamin, general secretary of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, said 1,200 jobs will be lost at second level next year. "Taking into account the number of classes each teacher would teach over the course of the school year, we estimate that this will result in over 1.3 million fewer classes for pupils, or 7,922 fewer per day. This staggering figure highlights just how devastating the cuts will be to our education system.
"In situations such as this, the inevitable results are the narrowing of the curriculum, the amalgamation of classes, and even the dropping of subjects.
"In an education system where we are already concerned at the low numbers of graduates in science and mathematics, this will be the death knell on our aspirations of becoming a knowledge society."