Madam, - With regard to the education cuts announced last month, most attention has been focused on the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio, which will have seriously damaging effects, particularly for the most vulnerable students.
However, the changes to the supervision and substitution scheme, which come into effect from January, will have immediate and catastrophic consequences for schools and will also have the heaviest impact on weaker students, for whom extra-curricular activities are probably the main reason to continue in school.
Do parents realise, I wonder, that it is almost certain that schools' sporting, cultural and co-curricular events will be suspended from January 7th next, on health and safety grounds, as boards of management will not be able to guarantee the safe supervision of teams and school groups? In practical terms this will mean that the group scheduled to attend the Young Scientist Exhibition will not be allowed to travel; likewise the team in the final of the hurling championship, the planned Leaving Cert biology or geography field trips, or the fifth-year class scheduled to attend a live presentation of Hamlet.
Minister O'Keeffe insists that these cuts are necessary because, in his own words, "the economy is banjaxed". Nobody denies that the economy is in dire straits, nor that very severe corrective measures are called for and, unfortunately, education cannot escape the knife. But the problem with these cuts is that they are being made with a blunt hatchet. Had the Minister or his officials consulted the education partners, they would have been made aware of other areas where economies would have yielded similar savings without the disastrous consequences for children which we now face.
Government spin-doctors have attempted to portray the reaction to these measures as "teachers whingeing again" and have played down the widespread anger among parents at the seriously negative effects the cuts will have on their children. This is not a teachers' issue; it is a major issue for parents and parents must mobilise to have these cuts reversed and replaced with realistic, achievable economies in a broader range of educational provision.
The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals in post-primary schools represents senior in-school management across the three second-level sectors. We believe the changes in the supervision and substitution scheme and in uncertified sick-leave arrangements will make managing schools impossible from January. It is not too late for the Minister to withdraw these ill-conceived proposals now, consult with the education partners and come up with economies in other areas which will yield similar savings. - Yours , etc,
JIM COONEY,
National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (Region 6),
Ennis,
Co Clare.
Madam, - The recent comments by the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, regarding teachers' uncertified sick leave amount to smug, deceptive and manipulative use of statistics ( The Irish Times, November 21st).
His objective is to divert attention from the Department's cutbacks and the continued underfunding of Irish education.
As correctly pointed out by the INTO, the total number of uncertified sick days for 2007-2008 - 59,992 - equates to one day per teacher per year. The vast majority of these days are attributable to family weddings, funerals and attendance at hospitals with sick children. Perhaps the Minister expects teachers to renege on their family commitments and responsibilities.
Do workers in other sectors of the national economy, in both private and public sectors, not do the same?
I look forward to meeting the minister at the Asti conference next Easter. - Yours, etc,
SIMON CAREY,
Pollerton,
Carlow.
