More than one school believes it lost out because it was penalised for success, writes Breda O'Brien
AS PARENTS and children struggle to adjust to being back in school, it is natural that the immediate and obvious costs of education are a major focus of dissatisfaction. Payments for books, uniforms and lunches, and the endless demands for money for outings and activities seem to begin earlier each year. Parents grumble, but after a week or two it all dies down. Meanwhile, the ongoing difficulties facing education rarely receive the sustained public attention they need.
The problem is that we never redressed decades of underfunding during the boom years. Far from redressing them now, the Department of Education and Science seems to be scrabbling around to save money in any way it can. Some of those ways are positively scary.
It is a truism that, to survive in the world today, a child needs to be familiar with information and communications technology (ICT), and not just to use Windows Live Messenger or play computer games. Many schools have computers from the Jurassic era.
It was stunning to learn what happened at the end of June without warning or consultation. All the ICT advisors in education centres who had been seconded from teaching were told their services were no longer required. Some 21 posts designed to support teachers to begin moving towards computer-based learning were just abolished. It is so short-sighted and foolish. The Government promised that €252 million would be allocated in the National Development Plan for ICT in schools. It does not increase confidence when the same Government dispenses with ICT advisors.
Government promises on education have long been flimsy. In the current programme for government, there is a commitment to "complete the equalisation of funding at second level within two years". That is jargon for ending the disparity in funding between voluntary secondary schools, the VEC sector, and the community and comprehensive schools. To give an example, in the school year 2006/2007, any voluntary secondary school was receiving €108 less per child than the community school down the road. Part of the problem is that secondary schools, unlike community schools, have to pay their own insurance and supplement the inadequate departmental grant for secretarial, cleaning and caretaking staff.
What magnificent progress was made towards equalisation last year? The budget gave an additional €10 per child, so the difference is now €98. Those of you who believe €98 will be allocated per secondary school pupil in the next budget should seek professional help immediately. Not that community schools are exactly rolling in money either - they are just better off than their educational neighbours.
A small subsection of voluntary secondary schools are facing significant additional challenges. The way in which funding is allocated to disadvantaged schools has changed. The new scheme is called, rather ironically, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (Deis). Some 45 secondary schools which were previously designated as disadvantaged have lost that status because they did not meet the new criteria, which are based on the numbers holding medical cards, how good the schools are at retaining pupils to Junior and Leaving Certificate, and the standard of results. The data was collected on students in the 1990s and early 2000s, so does not, for example, take account of the influx of non-English speaking children. Nor does it take into account learning difficulties, below- average reading levels or other significant indicators such as disruptive behaviour.
Schools that lost disadvantaged status are watching their additional student grant of €38 being cut by a quarter each year.
This September, it will only be €19 per student; by the next academic year it will be €9.50 per student, and it will be gone entirely by September 2010. More than one school believes it lost out because it was penalised for success. Due to a lot of hard and often voluntary work by teachers, pupils stayed in school and got better-than-expected exam results. Their reward? Loss of disadvantaged status. One school with 900 students lost €8,550 last year. This year it lost a further €17,100. By 2010 the original grant of €34,000 will be gone and the literacy and numeracy needs of pupils will suffer.
Disadvantaged kids don't go away, you know, just because the department decides to change the way it measures them.
To add salt to the wound, a neighbouring school with 400 pupils (not in the voluntary sector) has seen its disadvantaged grant increase by €41,000 per annum. Still not enough, but better than the smack in the face the denominational school received.
Even those schools which retained disadvantaged status have lost out because, under the original scheme, every student in the school received a grant. Now, only a percentage of students receive it. One school has seen its grant drop from €20,906 to €12,000.
One final story. At least two schools received letters on August 25th, the day when most secondary schools reopened, to inform them that the home-school liaison co-ordinator would now be shared with another school. For those unfamiliar with the scheme, home-school liaison is targeted at children most likely to drop out or do badly at school, by marshalling the resources of the home, school and community to achieve a better outcome. One gobsmacked home- school liaison co-ordinator was told that, from that day, she would be working for half the week in a school miles away. Again, there was no warning or consultation.
It is a principal's nightmare. If the teacher opts to return to classroom teaching rather than suffer such an unbelievable overnight change in working conditions, the whole timetable will have to be revamped and probably no one will want the now-vacant home-school liaison post. It all stinks of panicky attempts to meet Department of Finance targets for cutbacks.
When will our Government learn that education matters too much to too many children to take short-term, cheapskate measures that hurt those most in need? In a time of economic downturn, we can only make things worse by failing to recognise that investment in education is investment in a viable future for Ireland.
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bobrien@irish-times.ie
