Schools are facing 'long, cold winter' of class cuts
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe was on hand to officially open the new stand at Cork Racecourse in Mallow yesterday. It came as the Irish Vocational Education Association accused Mr O'Keeffe of a 'scatter-gun' approach to funding cuts for schools
A LONG, cold winter for the education sector was predicted last night as the Budget cuts continue to send shockwaves through schools.
The general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association warned that while some features of the cutbacks were immediately obvious, others would not become apparent until the roll-out in 2009.
The warning came as a town council tonight considers a motion put forward by a Fianna Fail councillor on "catastrophic" education cuts, and a new row blew up over sports being dropped at schools next year because of the cuts.
Parents of some students got letters this mid-term warning inter-school sporting activities will be stopped from January, along with field trips for geography and science, as well as visits to art galleries and theatres.
St Brendan's College, Killarney, has told parents it may send students home from the new year because of the withdrawal of substitution cover.
St Brigid's Presentation School, also in Killarney, has told parents it will lose €12,000 in funding under the cuts and will have to depend on fund-raising and the "generosity" of parents to make up the losses.
Colm O'Rourke, the principal of St Pats in Navan; and Pat Spillane, principal of St Goban's School in Bantry, Co Cork, also raised concerns about school sports last week. Sports Minister Martin Cullen said they were using "excessive and scaremongering language".
Michael Moriarty of the Vocational Education Association said: "The pre-Budget warnings could not have prepared the education partners for what was to come."
He said: "The proposed cuts in funding range across most areas of educational provision in the form of a 'scatter-gun' approach. The priority seems to have been to focus on achieving financial savings, without a full realisation of the impact of the cuts on the fabric on the Irish education system."
Mr Moriarty said that the range of the proposed cuts had overshadowed what positives there were in the Budget.
There would be a 3.2pc increase in overall expenditure on education, an increase in capital expenditure of €79m, and an increase in capitation grants to schools, he said.
"The real story remains, however, the detrimental effect of the funding cutbacks on schools, education services, and students. The debate and controversy is now all about students and learners," he said.
Mr Moriarty said he was particularly concerned at the withdrawal of certain financial grants to support the disadvantaged and marginalised in our schools and education centres.
Survival
"The culture of the survival of the fittest has always been a feature of society, but modern caring societies do try to balance the odds in terms of supports to the less-able or marginalised."
However, Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has said the budgetary decisions came against the backdrop of a difficult international economic situation.
Meanwhile, Tralee Town Council will hear a call tonight for a withdrawal of "the catastrophic cuts in education".
Former mayor of Tralee and secondary school teacher Norma Foley says the cuts will have "a devastating impact on our children and our country going forward".
Already the council in Tralee has seen the resignation from the Fianna Fail party of Councillor Kieran Moriarty, a primary school teacher, because of the cuts.
Ms Foley, who is the daughter of former Fianna Fail Kerry North TD Denis Foley, yesterday said she believed the cuts could still be reversed, if the Government listened.
- John Walshe Education Editor and Anne Lucey
