Sir, – Did Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn engage in even a basic impact assessment of his sweeping Budget cuts to designated disadvantaged primary schools? Many DEIS schools (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) will lose between four and six teachers, with estimates that at least one will lose 12 teachers for working with pupils at extremely high levels of need.
Junior DEIS schools are to be treated on a pupil-to-teacher ratio of an “alleviated” level: 18-to-one from 15-to-one. DEIS band-2 schools are to go from a 24-to-one ratio to 28-to-one. Many administrative principals are to go, the support teacher scheme to go, the learning support system allocation changed. 250 teachers in DEIS disadvantaged primary schools are to be transferred to other schools nationally.
These measures are in stark contrast with international recommendations, an affront to social justice and solidarity, and an appalling dismantlement of system supports for those pupils at a high level of need in school.
These savage cuts are directly contrary to OECD recommendations to prioritise educational resources for most socio-economically marginalised areas and they fly in the face of the Government’s EU commitments to reaching the EU2020 target of 10 per cent early school leavers nationally. They directly undermine the national literacy strategy much vaunted by the Minister. These cuts will undo the legacy of Niamh Bhreathnach, the minister for education who initiated the Breaking the Cycle scheme in 1996. It sets back the education of these children to a pre-1996 era. These cuts are an assault on the notable improvements to early school leaving figures nationally in recent years.
Aside from the human costs of these Budget proposals, the economic costs of these cuts will be felt by society in the medium to long-term, including through the justice and health system. The economic case for investment in primary education is well recognised internationally. These vastly disproportionate cuts to the education of our disadvantaged pupils will haunt the Government and Irish society for generations to come. We call on Mr Quinn to rescind these cuts as a matter of urgency. – Yours, etc,