St Pat's to lose seven teachers despite a rise in enrolment

St Patrick's Classical School in Navan is set to lose up to 7.4 teaching posts in September, according to local Fine Gael TD Damien English, who has condemned the Fianna Fail-led Government for "bringing out their axe" to cut the number of teacher posts at the school, despite an increase in student numbers for the coming year. "It is astonishing that St Pat's must endure serious losses to their teacher numbers, especially as enrolment figures for the 2009/2010 school year has seen an increase in the number of students it will have. These proposed cuts by Government are a further hit to the education sector in County Meath. I feel that this Government has not finished savaging our schools and predict they will further cut the resources that our schools are meant to educate our children with," said Deputy English. "Already this summer, the Government has announced a significant withdrawal of special classes for students with learning difficulties that will come into affect when schools return. Government has greatly increased school transport costs to parents and have withdrawn the majority of book grants to schools. Couple these with further cuts presented to Government in the McCarthy report, and the provision of education in Meath is in for some uneasy times ahead," added Deputy English. "I have on previous occasions highlighted the escalating costs to parents of sending their children to school and the rising pupil to teacher ratio in our schools. The loss of these proposed teaching posts in St Pat's will see a jump in the numbers of pupils in each classroom. I condemn the Government in their actions and urge them to reconsider this attack on fron line education services," said Deputy English.