Dismayed teachers and parents from all over Galway and the west are set to take part in a major protest march in Eyre Square on Saturday, November 8.
The protest has been organised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation to fight against the proposed Budget cuts in education which will see up to 22 posts being lost in Galway city alone next year.
At a meeting held recently by primary school teachers in Galway, INTO representative Joe Killeen slated the Government for choosing a soft target; the children. He said that the detrimental effect of the cuts on the future of the children had been explained to the politicians and yet they still introduced the cuts which “were now, incredibly, still being justified by the all powerful few”.
“Parents and teachers will not mind paying for the excesses of the Celtic Tiger but they will draw the line and not allow their children’s future be sacrificed as payment for these excesses. The Government missed their target as they did in the medical card debacle, it is time to reconvene the misguided advisers,” he said.
INTO Vice President Máire Ni Chuinneagáin said that a census at the Galway meeting revealed that up to 20 per cent of the schoolgoing children of Galway were the children of the “new Irish”. At the meeting teachers from Holy Trinity NS and the Claddagh NS outlined the detrimental effects the cuts in additional language teachers would have on the learning in their schools; one school has 180 pupils where English was not their first language. Ms Ni Chuinneagáin said that “with the proposed capping at two teachers perhaps 1/6 of these pupils will have some tuition and supplementary help in trying to the learn language, overcome the language barrier and assimilate our complex culture”.
Ms Ní Chuinneagáin called on all parents, teachers and interested parties to have their voices heard and attend the march which will commence in Eyre Square, November 8, at 2pm.
Meanwhile Fine Gael education spokesperson Senator Fidelma Healy Eames collected 484 signatures in less than one hour during a petition in Eyre Square shopping centre on Monday.
Speaking ahead of yesterday’s debate on education cuts in the Seanad, Senator Healy Eames said: “People are angry and in disbelief with these five cuts by this Fianna Fail-led Government. They see it as a barbaric attack on our children’s education in primary and second-level schools. Education is the one area in which we should be investing to ensure that we are prepared for the future. Second-level principals and teachers said to me if these cuts go ahead their schools will be inoperable after Christmas”.
The five cuts highlighted in the petition are: The increases in pupil-teacher ratio; removal of supervision cover at second-level; removal of uncertified substitution cover; removal of home-school liaison co-ordinator; and cap on English language support teachers.
Of the 1,000 teacher posts which INTO say will be lost nationwide, Senator Healy Eames said that many could be in Galway city; Mervue NS is set to lose seven teachers and Claddagh NS will lose four. She went on to say that the cuts in English language support will mean that “Irish born and foreign national children will be competing for resources”.
“The classroom is becoming a destitute place. With these cuts Minister O’Keeffe shows he has little understanding of the value of teacher contact time in appropriate learning settings. If Minister O’Keeffe continues to stand over these cuts, on educational grounds I believe he is not fit to be Minister of Education,” she said.
To sign the on-line petition to reverse the decision on the increase of class sizes in primary schools check out www.fidelmahealyeames.finegael.ie
