Teachers, parents join forces to fight classroom cuts

Furious teachers and parents throughout Meath are preparing to fight the education budget cuts as local INTO, ASTI and TUI members make their way to Dail Eireann today (Wednesday) for a national protest against the proposed measures that will hit local schools hard. The long-serving secretary of the Navan INTO branch, Maurice Kearney, principal of Ratoath Senior School, said that never in his 30 years had he experienced the 'white fury' which was palpable when his members met to discuss the cuts at the Ardboyne Hotel, Navan, last week. Upwards of 20 primary school teachers could be lost in the Navan branch area while secondary schools face the loss of even more teaching staff. Meath VEC is facing the effective loss of 15 teachers in its schools across Meath, a special meeting of the county"s Vocational Education Committee heard last week. VEC schools will also lose most of their free book schemes and parents will also face sharp increases in transport charges, CEO Peter Kierans warned as he addressed members at a meeting in Navan last Friday. The VEC has unanimously agreed to seek a meeting with the all Meath TDs and senators while also calling for information nights to to held at which parents can be about the extent of the education budget cuts. Mr Kierans detailed the demands of a Department of Education letter dating from August for a three per cent reduction of payroll costs next year and the effect of the budget on education services. One of the 26 projects approved for building in the Budget was Dunboyne, but it was proving 'very hard' to get a letter confirming this, he said. Reduced teacher-pupil ratios would mean 15 fewer teachers while the limit of just two language support teachers per school would prove very difficult for Beaufort College, Navan, in particular. It has over 110 pupils whose first language is not English and currently seven such teachers instructed these students before they entered the classroom. The suspension of sick/in-service training cover from next January would create further difficulties while the suspending of the early retirement scheme effectively prevented the hiring of lower-paid young teachers, the CEO said. The grants cuts to Dunboyne College alone would take €40,000 off its budget while the loss of capitation funding for Travellers will mean €12,000 less for Beaufort College. The principal of St Patrick"s Classical School, Navan, Colm O"Rourke, said his school, which has 830 pupils, stood to lose five teachers from a current total of 56 full-time staff. He described the cuts as 'a disaster for education' and a 'step back in time' to an older era, which would result in the gains of several years being lost. He said the Government"s cuts were 'a very crude' way of cutting costs. In an individual protest against the cuts, Navan"s Clusker branch of the Labour Party is to stage a protest outside the constituency office at Fair Green, Navan, of Transport Minister Noel Dempsey at 1pm today (Wednesday). Local elections Labour Party candidates called for public support from parents and students for the hour-long protest. Navan"s INTO branch covers an area as far as Ratoath, Dunboyne and Ashbourne, into such rural parishes as Wilkinstown and up to the outskirts of Slane. The union has between 400 and 500 members in the Navan branch. Smaller branches in Kells and Trim have members in about 20 schools apiece. Mr Kearney estimated that teacher job losses in the Navan branch area alone would be 12-20. 'These are full-time jobs,' he insisted. The main issues which had infuriated primary school teachers at last week"s meeting were the increase in class sizes and the abolition of substitute cover. In cutting English support teachers for newcomer children, he said the Government was targetting the weak. This also applied to school book and library grant cuts. Teachers are making their way to the Dail for the start of the 6.30pm protest meeting tonight before the vote on a Labour Party motion opposing the cuts. A bus is leaving Fair Green, Navan, at 4.30pm, and many parents are also are expected to attend the protest. The chairperson of the parents" council at St Patrick"s Classical School, Navan, Marie Gaffney, deplored the effects the measures would have on the transition year programme, Irish summer school courses and sports. The chairperson of St Paul"s NS parents" association, Jamestown, Ratoath, Therese Foster, said members had written to all parents asking them to write to Meath Minister of State and local TD, Mary Wallace, to demand that she defy the Fianna Fail party whip and 'take the side of the children and parents of Ratoath on this issue of education cuts'. In addition to the likely loss of five teachers at the school, Colm O"Rourke was also appalled at the effects of the budget cuts on extra-curricular activities. The Navan school, for example, has won three out the last 10 All-Ireland schools" Gaelic football titles and six out of the alst 10 Leinster titles. However, it was not just Gaelic games which would suffer in his and other schools, he said, as St Pat"s students also play basketball, rugby and take part in athletics. The cutting of substitute teachers will impact on all these extra-curricular activities as well as trips to the theatre and, for example, productions such as this year"s joint St Pat"s and St Joseph"s Convent of Mercy, Navan, show 'Les Miserables", which was staged in the town with a cast drawn from both student bodies.