Over 200 schools to keep teachers

More than 200 schools which were due to lose a teacher in September will now be able to keep them, having won their appeals to…

More than 200 schools which were due to lose a teacher in September will now be able to keep them, having won their appeals to the Primary Staffing Appeals Board.

A further 160 schools were unsuccessful in their appeal.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn denied there was a problem with the initial decision by the Department of Education to cut the posts, given that more than half of schools had won their appeal.

"Our decisions are based on figures submitted by the schools themselves last October. There can be changes in the composition of schools, changes on the ground that the Department would not be aware of. That's why we have the appeals mechanism. Things can change in a year," he told RTÉ radio this morning.

Three quarters of schools with pupils needing language skills were successful in their appeal.

Mr Quinn said the figure depended on enrolment and whether a school had a large proportion of immigrant children for whom English is not their first language.

Asked whether there would need to be cutbacks in other areas given that 200 teachers the Department had not planned on will now be employed, Mr Quinn said there would not.

"I can categorically say there will be no cutbacks elsewhere," he said.

The deadline for schools to appeal losing a teaching post is June 1st. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said she did not expect many other schools to appeal as all those who met the criteria to appeal would already have done so.

Schools who lost their appeals cannot appeal again this year.