MINISTER FOR Education Mary Coughlan has told the education sector to prepare for cuts in the forthcoming budget.
The sector will have to do more with less, she said, despite the projected boom in school numbers.
Ms Coughlan hinted that support and back-up services would be vulnerable to cost savings. But she also signalled there may be no more cuts in third-level staffing, over and above the cumulative 6 per cent cut which will be imposed on the sector by the end of 2010.
Ms Coughlan has little room for manoeuvre as she seeks cuts in the €9 billion education budget. Pay and pensions account for some 80 per cent of current spending, but the Croke Park deal and the agreement with the Greens to maintain class size means there is little scope for extra savings.
In the medium term, she said, there would continue to be significant constraints on the level of resources available for education.
“I believe there is a need to be clear and upfront about this. Meeting the needs of the learners we seek to serve means facing up to this reality and meeting the challenge it presents. We would all like to be in a different place but the bottom line is we will have to try to do more with less at all levels of the education system.
“This requires new approaches to how we do things and ensuring we get full value for the resources that are available.”
She supported new methodologies, placing an emphasis on critical thinking and less on rote learning. Addressing the annual conference of the Irish Vocational Education Association, Ms Coughlan also defended the moratorium on promotional posts in schools.
“The moratorium is about achieving a reduction in the cost of the public payroll. Since the Croke Park agreement has given certain assurances about pay itself, achieving reductions in the public sector numbers is even more critical in terms of reducing overall pay costs.”
The chief inspector of the Department of Education told the conference that literacy standards in many disadvantaged schools are not improving despite investment. Dr Harold Hislop said assessments indicated no significant improvements in literacy levels in about 50 per cent of evaluated schools.