Give us back our teachers

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday December 03, 2005 12:27 by Gregor Kerr - INTO Dublin City North branch - personal capacity kerrgregor at yahoo dot co dot uk 086-1501151

Public meeting demands reversal of staffing cuts

Almost 300 people attended a packed public meeting in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square, Dublin on Wednesday night 30th November to protest at the loss of Special Needs teachers in a number of primary schools in the North inner city.

Almost 300 people attended a packed public meeting in the Teachers Club, Parnell Square, Dublin on Wednesday night 30th November to protest at the loss of Special Needs teachers in a number of primary schools in the North inner city.

The way in which schools are given teachers to teach children with special needs changed last June. Instead of such teachers being allocated as a result of psychological assessments of individual pupils, the Department of Education and Science has moved to what they term a General Allocation system. Under the new scheme, Special Needs teachers are allocated to schools in proportion to the number of pupils on roll. In the vast majority of schools this new scheme has resulted in either no change or an improvement in the support which can be offered to pupils with special needs.

However in a number of schools – mainly based in the north inner city – the change has meant that the school cannot give the same level of support to children who need it as they could a few months ago. The promise given by the Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin, in October 2004 that “no child will lose a support they currently have” has not been honoured in these schools.

Wednesday night’s meeting was organised by the disadvantaged sub-committee of District XIV of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and was addressed by Brendan O’Sullivan of the INTO’s Central Executive Committee and by two principals from schools affected, Pat Courtney and Mark Candon. Contributions from the floor came from parents and teachers angry at the fact that in the era of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ pupils who need help in school are being denied that help. Speaker after speaker demanded that the staffing levels in our schools be restored to its previous level and that the pupils be given the same chance as everyone else.

A motion was proposed at the meeting that a face-to-face meeting be sought with local TD, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, to demand his intervention. It was also agreed that if he did not meet us or did not intervene to ensure that these staffing cutbacks are reversed, parents and teachers would protest outside the Dáil and outside Mr. Ahern’s constituency office.

Standing together in the interest of our children, parents and teachers of the north inner city will ensure that the government is forced to meet our demands.