TEACHERS' UNION REACTION:The State's largest teaching union, the INTO, has said the recommendations in the 'Bord Snip' report would cause "devastation" in primary schools if implemented.
General secretary John Carr said the proposal to cut school funding by 20 per cent “fail to recognise that Ireland is already the second last in the EU league of spenders on education”.
“Primary schools are propped up and kept going by voluntary fundraising and parent contributions,” Mr Carr said.
He said the scale of the proposed cutbacks was “despicable”.
“Cutbacks on this scale will put Irish primary education back decades.”
He said the authors of the report had “failed to recognise that there are no surplus workers in schools”.
“Ireland has the second highest class sizes in primary schools in the EU. Already a thousand jobs have been axed. Services to special needs children, disadvantaged children and newcomer children have been already been slashed. The McCarthy report bizarrely proposes thousands of additional job losses. It simply cannot be done.”
Among the recommendations in the 'Bord Snip' report are a reduction in the number of special needs assistants and English-language support teachers.