CHILDREN are going to school worried about their family’s financial situation, a senior teachers’ representative in Clare has claimed. Their worries were little eased on Monday and Tuesday as Budget 2012 brought more bad news for the country’s youngest citizens.

From children starting school this year or next to those facing filling out CAO forms without individual guidance and from those finishing undergraduate courses and hoping not to join the dole queue to those with disabilities receiving State payments, it was bad news for one and all. Worse again, the budgets for 2013, 2014 and 2015 promise a further €6.43 billion worth of cuts.
“Our members are at the cutting edge in relation to seeing the pressure and stresses on families,” said Sean McMahon, Irish National Teachers’ Organisation central executive committee member for Clare, after this week’s Budget announcements.
“Our members are seeing on a daily basis that people have to be more frugal in terms of their means. They also still wish to prioritise their children and continue to give the best education and support to their children. Schools are seeing children who are worried because of conversations at home revolving around money and unemployment and fear,” he outlined.
Monthly child benefit payments will drop in January 2012, according to Monday’s announcement by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin.
Payments for the first and second child in any home will remain the same but payments for the third child will fall from €167 to €148, with the payments dropping by €17 to €160 for fourth and subsequent children this year.
Parents of two and three-year-old children, who would have qualified for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, will find themselves having to wait until the children are four to begin receiving this payment.
From next year, the rates will be reduced from €305 to €250 and from €200 to €150.
“I was talking to a parent in a school recently and, for her, the combination of the reduction of the number of weeks she would get fuel allowance, the reduction in the back to school allowance and worries that her one parent payment will be restricted meant there were tears of worry and confusion as to how she would provide for her children going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
School capitation grants will drop by 2% in both 2012 and 2013 and by a further 1% in both 2014 and 2015. This money is intended to be spent on the day-to-day running costs of schools, such as heating, cleaning, lighting, maintenance of school premises and grounds and the provision of teaching materials and resources. The Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative will be abolished from next year.
“On the one hand, we are listening to our politicians telling us we need to be part of a wider Europe, we had this initiative going on in schools and it was running largely at no cost to the exchequer. It is a programme with a logically sound educational impetus behind it. Now for fiscal reasons and in the obvious face of all education imperatives, this project is being terminated. It is a no brainer,” Mr McMahon went on.
School transport costs are doubling from €50 to €100, with the maximum family payment rising to €220.
“This again is a hit on rural, often isolated, communities and is very much targeting the peripheral rural areas. What I mean is that it is the families of the children attending the two- and three-teacher schools who will have to deal with this worry and consideration in the context of the budget, where costs seem to be increasing across the spectrum. The point is that schools need investment. Children in schools are our future both economically and socially,” Mr McMahon commented.
€16.5 million is being cut from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, while cutbacks in the Department of Health will mean €50 million will be taken from disability, mental health and childcare services.

Clare teachers could face the axe following cuts

MORE than a dozen Clare schools could lose teachers next year due to changes announced in Budget 2012.
Cuts in education will mean that children in one-, two-, three- or four-teacher primary schools can look forward to larger class sizes and multi-level groups.
Clare’s Irish National Teachers’ Organisation central executive committee member Sean McMahon described this as “extremely worrying for rural schools, especially for schools in Clare and particularly along the western seaboard because as the figures show, there is a serious retention figure proposed for the next four years. In order to retain the first teacher with the principal, the figures are going from 12 to 20 pupils, now there are at least a dozen schools in Clare that this will place in serious jeopardy.”
Scropul National School in Mullagh, Boston National School, Tubber National School, Doonaha National School near Kilkee, Clonigulane National School in Kilmihil, St Patrick’s National School, Fanore, Baltard National School in Doonbeg, Saint Joseph’s National School in Broadford and Clondrinagh National School in Coolmeen all had less than 20 pupils enrolled in September 2010.
“Then for a three-teacher school, one with a principal plus two teachers, the retention figure is going from 49 to 56 pupils. This is an increase of one-seventh, which is not acceptable. Four-teacher schools are going from a current position of having a minimum of 81 pupils to a new position of having to have 86 over the next three years. Then if we look at a three-teacher school, the school that cannot make the magic figure of 56 pupils in three years, let’s say they have 55 children, that becomes a two-teacher school with 27 or 28 pupils per class. As well as this very high pupil to teacher ratio, these are multi-level classes and you could even find a teacher who has communion and confirmation children in the one class,” Mr McMahon outlined.
“Nationwide, there is an increase in population but regrettably, depopulation is the theme in rural areas. Planning has been problematic in Clare, it has been particularly difficult for people to build homes in West and North Clare, the consequence of this is that people have been leaving the villages and moving to the urban centres. That means we have urban schools that are bursting at the seams and in the country, we have schools with extra capacity,” he continued.
“This change to the way teachers are allocated to primary school is also an incredibly poor use of resources given that over the last few years, many of these schools have been modernised and now face the threat of empty classrooms and closure,” he added.
This loss of teachers in rural schools will also result in more newly qualified teachers joining the dole queue as those let go from permanent positions will join the diocesan panel system.
“Overall, the number of pupils going into the education system is increasing but the number of graduates, who are unemployed, is dramatically rising. This Budget will not improve the situation for unemployed national teachers over the next three years. It will exacerbate the problem for unemployed primary teachers. It will continue to push qualified people from rural Ireland to urban areas,” Mr McMahon concluded.