Dempsey’s miserable record on educational disadvantage

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday May 28, 2003 14:17 by Manus - LY - Sligo

For the record, this is the action of the Minister for Education and Science on educational disadvantage since he came to office!

Cuts worth €36 million in education programmes were revealed in September 2002, cuts the Minister claimed would not affect pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. They included:

> The School Retention Initiative cut by €6million. This scheme is designed to reduce the school drop-out rate.
> €5m cut from programmes aimed at attracting socio-economically disadvantaged school-leavers to third level.
> The Back to Education Initiative has been cut by €3.8million. This provides for adults returning to education.

Other educational cutbacks, as part of this package of €36million in cuts which are linked to disadvantage include:

> A cut of €6million in in-service teacher-training courses.
> A cut of €6.2million in IT research and development.
> Teacher recruitment and training has been been cut by €6.7million.

The student registration charge was increased last September from €396 to €670, an increase of 70%, a cutback worth in the region of €16million. Colleges have warned that they may need to increase the registration charge to €1,400 if they are to maintain the existing level of services in the face of cutbacks in public spending.

The Back to Education Allowance Scheme has been restructured. The Allowance is aimed at assisting those who are unemployed, are single parents or have a disability, to pursue approved second-or third-level education courses. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs has reversed some of the cuts but it will no longer be paid to those on long-term unemployment or over the summer months in certain categories.

The School Building Programme published in January 2003 saw hundreds of school building projects frozen at the architectural planning stage. Only 26 building starts at primary and secondary will begin in 2003. In order to fund a pilot programme for 20 selected schools to complete work on a devolved basis, the Minister takes €20m from the third level building programme.

In the book of Estimates published in November 2002, funding for building, equipment and furnishing of national schools was cut by 4%, funding for building, equipment and furnishing of secondary schools was cut by 10%, and funding for building, equipment and furnishing of third level institutions was cut by 33% i.e. a cut in third level building projects of €42million in 2003.

The Student Summer Jobs Scheme has been abolished. This allowed students in third level to work in their communities over the summer months to earn a maximum of €600 for a maximum of 200 hours.

The Minister has withdrawn the payment of the physical education grant to disadvantaged schools for 2003. The grant (worth €635) for supporting the teaching of PE and sports in disadvantaged schools was introduced in October 2000.

The Department of Education is also “reviewing” the payment and level of the Grant Scheme for Minor Works (also known as the capitation grant) to all schools. This annual payment (a lump sum currently worth €3,809) is paid to schools for minor repairs and maintenance works along with the payment of €12.70 per pupil.

There has been no increase in the “alleviation of disadvantage” subhead under third level education Estimate for 2003. €26million was allocated in 2002. This allocation remains the same for 2003.