O'Keeffe faces teachers' rage over classroom and salary cuts
EDUCATION Minister Batt O'Keeffe today faces the full brunt of teacher fury over pay and classroom cuts, which could see industrial action in primary schools from the autumn.
The minister is starting the annual round of education conferences with the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) where the possibility of industrial action is on the agenda.
Primary school teachers are angry over pension and other levies, and the round of education cuts, including bigger classes from September, which were announced in response to the economic crisis.
As the conference got under way last night, the union's Dublin City North branch was seeking support for a move to withdraw the invitation to the minister to address the conference today.
The motion was ruled out of order.
In his opening address, INTO president Declan Kelleher complained that ordinary workers were carrying the burden of the economic crisis.
He warned that the Government would "reap the reward" in the forthcoming local and European elections and the next general election.
Various motions for debate by the INTO conference today call for measures including industrial action in relation to class sizes and pensions, and withdrawal of teacher support from any new modernisation measures in schools.
The INTO, similar to other teacher unions, already has a mandate for up to two days' industrial action in protest at the Government's handling of the economic crisis.
Staff
Pledging the union's opposition to cuts, Mr Kelleher said the level of cutbacks in primary education was totally disproportionate to other sectors of the public service, due to the predicted increase in pupil numbers.
Class sizes will rise in September because of a cost-saving decision to change the formula for allocating staff, and the INTO predicts that primary schools will lose 1,000 teachers.
Mr Kelleher said that the primary curriculum was "close to being abandoned" as it could not be taught in overcrowded classes.
"You simply cannot implement a child-centred, highly individualised and group- focused curriculum where you have grossly overcrowded classrooms.
"Many schools will now have to revert to the 1980s and early 1990s where teachers taught whole classes using blackboard and chalk.
"Teachers will attempt to give children as much additional individual help as possible, but let's call a spade a spade. The 1999 primary school curriculum will no longer be implementable in packed and squashed classrooms."
Mr Kelleher also described the recent decision to close 128 special classes as "unbelievable".
"This decision has cut adrift some 600 children from the essential support of the special class and abandoned them into overcrowded mainstream classes with little or no additional support.
"This was the cruellest cut of all, and the fact that over 80 of these classes are in areas of socio-economic disadvantage has left these children with a double disadvantage."
On the pension and other levies, Mr Kelleher said teachers were more than prepared to pay their fair share towards economic recovery "but we must see equity and fairness applied from the top down".
- Katherine Donnelly
