PUPIL-TEACHER ratios are to be increased for more than 30,000 students attending post-Leaving Certificate courses because of Budget cutbacks.
The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), which says it only learned of the cutbacks during a meeting with Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe this week, claims the change in pupil-teacher ratios in this area will cost the jobs of more than 180 teachers.
However, the Department of Education said the change in the sector would not result in any further job "savings" over and above the 200 posts it has already said it is shedding in the post-primary sector.
Under the change, class sizes for PLC courses, Leaving Cert applied, Leaving Cert vocational and Junior Cert school programmes is being increased from 16:1 to 17:1 from the next academic year.
The department said that the change was made "on the same basis" as the change in ratios for post-primary mainstream teachers announced in the Budget.
The TUI said the first it knew of the change was at a meeting with the Minister on Tuesday.
"We told the Minister we were pleased that these programmes were not affected by the Government cutbacks, only to be informed we were incorrect and they were," TUI president Don Ryan said.
Mr Ryan said he was flabbergasted and furious at the cutback, which would have a "hugely detrimental effect" on the diversity of courses offered to students as well as posing a "logistical nightmare" for course co-ordinators.
"Now is not the time to undermine and reduce the capacity of the further education sector to engage people in relevant learning programmes that prepare them for the labour market and support progression to higher education."
Describing the change as "another vicious attack on education", Mr Ryan insisted that it had not been put "into the public domain" before now.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan's Budget speech last month did not go into the detail of the cutbacks in education, but the department issued a briefing document later the same day.
This referred to changes in the pupil-teacher ratios in primary and private schools and also stated: "In the case of post-primary schools, the allocation basis will be altered by one point with effect from September 2009 from the current 18:1 basis to a revised basis of 19:1."
While the document made no explicit reference to changes in ratios in Leaving Cert vocational or applied courses, the department considers them to belong to the post-primary sector.
However, privately, sources conceded that the changes could have been specified more explicitly.
Asked why the union did not seek clarification on the matter before this week, Mr Ryan said that it had assumed class sizes for courses aimed at marginalised students would not be affected by the cutbacks. "We didn't want to raise the hare on this," he said.
Pupil-teacher ratios in Youthreach, VTOS and Traveller education classes have not been changed.
