OPINION:FROM THE start of next year, small schools across the country with four teachers or fewer will start to close, robbing local communities of a vital part of their identity and jeopardising our high standards of primary school education.
Phased adjustments announced by the Government in the budget will be made to the staffing schedules for one-, two-, three- and four-teacher primary schools with fewer than 86 pupils.
In many cases, small schools are the last remaining element of organised public service as Garda stations, post offices and grocery shops disappear one by one.
It is regrettable that the Department of Education and Skills considers our network of rural schools superfluous and financially unviable. Recent research by Jim Spinks, research fellow at Melbourne University on behalf of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network, shows that schools with four teachers or fewer are as financially viable as medium-sized schools with between eight and 15 teachers.
Colm McCarthy, the UCD economist and author of the so-called Bord Snip report, included the closure of small schools as one of his measures to save money.
However, even if we look at these schools in pure economic terms, there is no clear saving to be made because the majority of them are in good condition due, in the main, to strong community involvement and local pride.
Furthermore, in a typical situation, if two small schools were to amalgamate, extra classrooms would need to be built to accommodate pupils in the schools to which they move. School transport would have to be provided, too, because the Government would have to introduce new bus routes, increasing school transport fees on parents who have already had to find extra money for school transport over the past two years. So where is the saving?
More importantly, there is no educational argument to back up the Government’s case to close small schools.
Research by Dr Catherine Mulryan-Kyne of St Patrick’s College in Drumcondra, Dublin, found that despite the complexities of the revised curriculum and the challenges of multigrade teaching, children’s learning in small schools was at least on a par with outcomes in larger schools.
The principals’ own research shows that educational outcomes in small schools compare well with those in larger schools and that federations or clusters of schools with shared governance structures have worked in other countries.
The primary principals’ network has examined alternative models of school provision in remote areas of Catalonia in Spain, Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, the north of Sweden, Queensland in Australia, and the Massif Central in France. The common factor in all these areas was the retention of teaching and learning functions and the amalgamation of the administration and management functions of schools.
These changes evolved over a two- to four-year period and children continued to attend the same school and retained their own school building in the community – an approach that is sound both in educational and resources terms.
Research undertaken by the principals’ network shows that 1,221 primary schools will be affected by the new staffing rules that increase the number of pupils needed for the retention of teachers. The move will severely exacerbate conditions of teaching and learning in small schools where it is not just the number of children but their age range that makes teaching multigrade classes challenging.
Small schools are severely affected by other changes announced in the recent budget.
The Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools scheme was designed to alleviate the effects of socioeconomic deprivation. With the abolition of the scheme for rural schools and in urban areas, it appears that the already disadvantaged are taking a disproportionate hit in the effort to save money.
With all of these cuts hitting schools at the same time, parents, principals and teachers are beginning to wonder what future lies ahead for their local school.
These small schools, operating at the very heart of local communities across the State, are in danger of closure. This goes to the heart of our identity as a nation and a community and to the high standards we have set ourselves as educators and parents.
It is disappointing that efforts made to date to “rationalise” small schools seem to be based on linear rather than lateral thinking. The aspects of small schools that are arguably inefficient are not the teaching and learning, but rather the administration, management and general governance. There is a clear need to pilot a number of models involving clusters and federations of small schools.
The research by the principals’ network shows that two-thirds of principals in small schools would undertake an administrative principal’s role involving two or three small schools if such a role became available, demonstrating there is an appetite for change.
The blunt instrument of pupil numbers as the sole measure for determining the continued existence of a school is clearly limited. In my view, good policy and savings are more likely to emerge from the evidence provided by good practice than a knee-jerk reaction to the clamour for austerity measures.
Seán Cottrell is director of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network