THE COUNTRY’S MOST disadvantaged primary schools will be “devastated” by last week’s Budget, one of the largest teaching unions has said.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has said that buried in the details of the Budget are proposals that will take hundreds of teaching posts out of the country’s most disadvantaged schools.
The INTO claims that many of these teaching posts will be reallocated to schools in better off areas.
About 40 frontline teachers will be let go in 12 disadvantaged schools on Cork’s north side alone, the union said.
The union has called on the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to rethink his proposals.
“Teachers are frontline when it comes to services to disadvantaged children. Every day they deal with its consequences such as poverty, hunger, alienation, marginalisation and anti-social behaviour,” said Sheila Nunan, general secretary of the INTO.
The plan to cut so many teaching jobs in these schools must be reviewed.
The Budget proposed a new class size of 22 pupils in disadvantaged schools, which the INTO describes as “simply inadequate” and still above the EU average.
Sheila Nunan said that the Budget would overturn “significant progress” that has been made in recent years for disadvantaged schools.
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