Government failed to protect the vulnerable

A COUNTY Clare principal and senior member of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) in the county has accused the Government of having “failed abysmally to protect the vulnerable in our society”.
Sean McMahon was speaking following the Minister for Education’s address at the INTO annual congress, which took place this week in Killarney. Mr McMahon also warned that the proposals in the recent budget will see the “destabilisation and potentially the closure over time of one-third of all small, mostly rural, primary schools”.
INTO members reacted with outrage to cuts in education contained in the Budget, saying that “small primary schools and education generally is being asked to pay the price for the Government’s austerity policies”.
The minister faced a protest from teachers in relation to small schools when he addressed the INTO congress. He responded by saying that small schools cannot be immune from austerity measures arising from the reality of current budgetary realities. He spoke of the necessity to make a further cut of €77 million in 2013 and €147m in 2014.
“Across the country, primary teachers see the escalating impact of the recession on children and their families. In schools and classrooms up and down the land more and more children who did nothing to cause the country’s economic crisis are falling victim to the prevailing ‘austerity-only’ solution,” Sheila Nunan, general secretary of the INTO said in response.
She told the minister his department’s policy “is fundamentally flawed, misguided and devoid of planning. What is needed is a coherent, long-term and resourced strategy for sustainable schools into the future. Instead, the budget proposes to forcibly amalgamate some small schools by cutting teachers, while leaving others untouched.”
Responding to the reality of these cuts in Clare, the union’s representative in the county, Séan McMahon, said the Government had “failed abysmally to protect the vulnerable in our society. Mr Quinn has stolen the futures of primary pupils to bail out the banks. He may also cause the stagnation of the Irish economy into the future due to his abject failure to invest in Ireland’s greatest natural resource – its children, its future.”
Mr McMahon said teachers, along with parents and management, are standing up for pupils and the education system.
“This is not about teachers,” he said. “It is about pupils and their futures.” He also denied that teachers are “scare-mongering or pursuing self-interest. Teacher unions are telling the truth about the extent and impact of the cuts. Parents will very quickly see this when the cuts take affect in schools. This will become particularly obvious when, as a result of the Budget, from next September small schools start to lose teachers.”
Mr McMahon argued that Government cuts in education are “entirely indefensible in view of the fact that Irish spending on schools is so low. Ireland spends 4.6% of GDP on education, compared to an EU average of more than 6%. The worst-funded sector of the education system is primary. In fact, was it not for the generosity of parents and school board fundraising, the primary school system would have long since collapsed.”
Mr McMahon said school communities, parents, teachers and management will not accept the education cuts and destabilisation of small schools.
“Meetings are taking place all over the country so that the full effects of the Government’s proposals can be explained. Major demonstrations and protests are taking place weekly on the small schools and education cuts issue at national and regional levels,” he added.