Young musicians face the brunt of unprecedented third-level cutbacks. Alison Healy reports on a threat to a Dublin conservatory serving students from all over the State
Parents have accused the Dublin Institute of Technology of deliberately downgrading its Conservatory of Music and Drama because it does not fit in with a campaign for university status.
A DIT spokeswoman said this was "simply not the case", but concerns about the conservatory's programme for part-time student's - which include some of the Republic's most promising young musicians - persist.
The conservatory, formerly known as the College of Music, has been teaching music to generations of children from all over Ireland since 1890.
It was set up to remove some of the elitism in music and provide "musical instruction at moderate charges".
Children aged from four years upwards attend classes after school and take part in ensembles on Saturdays. The school facilitates students living long distances from Dublin by scheduling their tuition on Saturdays.
However, a January staff meeting heard plans for increased fees, reduced student numbers and the reauditioning of students for their places every year. Classes for some younger students were to be discontinued.
Part-time student numbers have already fallen from more than 2,000 to under 1,400 since 1994.
In an unexpected move, however, the City of Dublin VEC did not ratify DIT's proposed budget for 2003-2004 last week and instead sought discussions between its chief executive, Mr Liam Arundel, and the DIT president, Dr Brendan Goldsmith.
The VEC's action was welcomed by parents and teaching staff. Ms Ite O'Donovan, TUI representative on the governing body, said the proposed cuts were alarming and would discriminate against music students. The proposed fee increase for part-time entrants was 25 per cent, compared with 10 per cent for other students.
She said a proposal to reaudition students every year was unacceptable and a closing date for paying fees of August 1st would exclude CAO applicants who would not have received their college offer by then.
Mr Paddy Healy, DIT's academic staff representative on the governing body, said he hoped this was the beginning of a realisation that the provision of musical education in Dublin must continue.
"The selective cuts in the college of music are quite deplorable. Nobody can unilaterally and seriously reduce the provision of music education," he said.
The newly formed Parents for Music lobby group said this was a "national crisis".
Children travelled from Drogheda, Dundalk, Meath and even further afield to avail of part-time tuition, said Ms Caroline Elbay, of Parents for Music.
"Also, the school is one of three such schools in the State and if these cutbacks are proposed in Dublin, who is to say it won't happen to Cork and Waterford too?"
She urged the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, to exercise his right to refuse to approve DIT's budget without modifications. The school's funds must be ring-fenced so they would not be used for other DIT programmes, Ms Elbay said.
A spokesman for the Minister said the implementation of DIT's programme and budget was a matter for the institute.
"We have no doubt that these cutbacks are part of DIT's campaign to get university status," Ms Slattery said. "What university has young children running around? It's elitism and egoism at its very worst."
If DIT did not want the school, then it should hand it back intact so that another body could run it. "To dismantle something that has been operating since 1890 would be a criminal act," she said.
DIT spokeswoman Ms Melda Slattery rejected claims that its aims of achieving university status was incompatible with the provision of junior tuition. "That's absolutely not the case," she said.
The institute was committed to "maintaining the widest possible access to the highest quality music education for young people and to nurturing the musicians, performers and composers of the future".
DIT was facing budgetary restrictions, Ms Slattery said, and cuts were proposed across all faculties. The college had a "very proud tradition" in music provision and had no wish to put an end to that.
