THOUSANDS OF people are expected to attend today’s Dublin march against the Budget education cutbacks.
Teacher unions says they have been heartened by the level of support from parents for the march, which they predict will be the biggest-ever education protest.
Today’s protest marks the culmination of a two-month campaign against the Budget cutbacks. Already, over 35,000 people have attended protest marches in Galway, Cork, Donegal and Tullamore.
Despite the scale of these protests, there is no sign that Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe will reverse his decision to increase class sizes.
Earlier this week, the Minister agreed to row back on some cutbacks in teacher substitution at second level, a move which averted potential chaos in schools next month.
Last night, primary schools managers met to consider how a similar compromise deal on substitution might work at primary level. A spokesman for the Minister said he would await developments.
But the spokesman stressed the increase in class sizes was not open for discussion.
The INTO says the increase will see over 1,000 teaching posts lost in primary schools.
At second level, school managers say over 800 posts will be lost.
Mr O’Keeffe says the increase in class size returns schools to the class size levels of two years ago. He has accused teacher unions of exaggerating its impact.
Yesterday, INTO general secretary John Carr said the compromise deal on substitution changed little.
“The Government had done nothing to reverse the budget proposals to increase class sizes, remove English-language teachers and withdraw special education and disadvantaged funding at both primary and second level. Neither has Government moved to resolve the substitution issue in primary schools,” he said.
“These are major issues of concern to parents, teachers and management and must be resolved.”
He called on members of the public concerned about the future of education to march today.
