'It came out of the blue, we are totally shocked and amazed'

TARGETING THE LITTLE PEOPLE:THE ONLY remaining Protestant secondary school in Dublin's inner-city is St Patrick's Cathedral Grammar. Forty per cent of the boys and girls come from the Dublin 8 area, with many of them benefiting from grants and charity support, according to headmaster Brian Levis.

In other words, it's a million miles from the stereotype of Protestant schools as elitist, Eton-style academies in exclusive out-of-town locations.

"This perception that we are 'leafy suburbs' and everybody's fabulously wealthy, that simply isn't the case. There's a perception out there that we don't have disadvantaged children," Mr Levis says.

In his small office, the former mathematics teacher is struggling to understand the logic behind the recently announced Budget education cuts, which will have a particular impact on Protestant schools.

Minister for Education Batt O'Keefe said he would save €2.8 million next year by regularising an "anomaly" that meant Catholic fee-charging schools were not getting certain State grants paid to others.

The background to this arrangement was a deal struck in the 1960s by Donagh O'Malley, who as minister for education agreed to give extra funds to schools catering for dispersed Protestant communities while allowing them to continue charging fees. A large portion of this State aid is distributed to students from poorer backgrounds.

"That's the way it is to this day, or was until the Budget," says Mr Levis. He is shocked by the sudden ending of the agreement, which "shows a total ignorance of what was in place and why it was there" and dismisses any talk of an anomaly as "nonsense, quite honestly".

He explains: "The original deal in 1968 was to deal with the dispersed Protestant population and with the whole issue of disadvantage, and that still remains the situation in here. Many of our kids are on SEC grants, maximum SEC grants, and indeed some of them are also supported by money from other charities."

Mr Levis estimates St Patrick's will lose about €50,000 in grants. The school is small, with just 130 pupils, and "that's using every square inch in every room".

To explain the impact on such a small establishment, Mr Levis compares the total cuts to funds required to hire another member of staff.

"It's €45,000 if we have to put on another teacher; €50,000 in grants cut. Now you don't have to be a rocket scientist. It's so critical, I don't think it can be overstated."

The school was established by Edward VI in 1547. To this day, a small number of pupils are choristers in the nearby cathedral. In 1988 the then taoiseach Charlie Haughey cut the ribbon on the building which is the heart of the school. Inside and out, it still has something of an 1980s feel.

Mr Levis says a "wide variety of nationalities" attend today as a consequence of immigrants living in the city centre.

The timing of the cutbacks has made them impossible to factor into the current financial year, according to the headmaster.

"I mean, the department sets great store by planning and rightly so, but to move the goalposts halfway through a school year - clearly it's impossible to plan or to reorganise for that.

"To spring it on us midway through the year . . . it came out of the blue, we are totally shocked and amazed."

Other cuts that will affect all schools will have a particular impact on smaller schools with disadvantaged pupils. These include the removal of book grants for needy pupils and the raising of the pupil-teacher ratio. The suspension of short-term substitution cover will also make life difficult for staff at St Patrick's.

"If you take today in this school, the deputy principal is at in-service on the child protection guidelines and the music teacher is at in-service training for technology in music, so we're two staff down. And at lunchtime today another teacher had to go home sick, so we were down three today.

"After January 1st, these people cannot be covered," he says.

Mr Levis will not be drawn on speculation that Protestant schools are being punished for mounting a successful High Court challenge on the teacher redeployment scheme.

With just a hint of exasperation, though, he concludes: "We're actually a charity. We're not a limited company trying to make as much money as possible."

Exploring the fallout from the education cuts

SERIES CONTINUES

Tomorrow:

Substitution - uncertified sick leave

Saturday:

Substitution - on school business