I thought I’d ask myself that question. I’ve been listening to all the experts on the radio over the last week or so and have attended the INTO meetings but I’m not really sure that they are focussing on the right thing. They all seem to be harping on about class sizes. Now before I continue, I think that this is a key issue and I agree that class size is an important issue. However, I don’t think it’s the issue that the public really care about. When I listen to the text messages sent into radio stations, the same stuff always pops up – “Teachers get long holidays so shouldn’t complain about class size”, “Teachers are always complaining – we all have to take the hit”, “Teachers should work real days”, etc. etc. The campaign for class size has been a complete failure. Few people outside of education see or care about the effects.
I think rather than focussing on class sizes, we should focus on what the budget cuts mean to the children, not teachers. I believe that is the INTO, IPPN and other parties focussed on real children rather than numbers, there would be a bigger outcry. With this in mind, these would be the reasons I am protesting and how they will affect children.
- When a teacher is sick for a day or two, a principal will have to do one of two things:
- Split classes – meaning there will be over 40 children in classrooms, many of who will be simply babysat for the day
- Use a Learning Support teacher – meaning that our more needy children will not get the support they need
- The cap on Language Support will require a principal to use a Learning Support teacher to take groups of non-English speaking or simply let the children flounder in classes hoping that they’ll pick up the language.
- The grant for resource teachers is gone so teachers will have to rely on old equipment to try and get points across. Children who attend learning support require more concrete materials to grasp concepts. They will now be unaffordable.
- The government have cut grants for books, uniforms and school buses which means that schools will end up paying for these rather than using this money to support their education
The government already saved themselves €252 million by not sanctioning the ICT grant. I, personally, would be willing to take a pay cut (although I’d be a bit annoyed about the unfairness of it!) and I don’t think others in the public sector would mind too much rather than the current solution offered by the government.
