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ALMOST HALF (46 per cent) of Irish primary schools are in deficit – and just over one fifth (22 per cent) of schools are breaking even, according to a new survey.
In addition, the majority of schools received a minor works grant, with those receiving it saying that without it they would see their school and grounds go into disrepair. The research was carried out on behalf of the Catholic Primary School Management Association by Amárach Research.
General Secretary of the CPSMA, Eileen Flynn said:
Schools at primary level were always the poor relation in terms of funding even in times of plenty and now cannot even make ends meet. Any further cuts to their budgets will be devastating. In addition any increase to the pupil teacher ratio affects all pupils and those most in need disproportionately.
The survey also found that there were reductions in income. Over half of the schools in disadvantaged areas reported they find themselves in particular difficulty with deteriorating buildings and unable to fund maintenance and repair works.
Minor Works Grant
The majority of schools (93 per cent) received a minor works grant last year to carry out essential repairs, and for the schools who received the grant, 43 per cent said it ranged between €5,001 and €8,000. Seven in 10 of the schools reported the funds were absolutely essential.
In total, 86 per cent of schools supported local contractors for this work and two-thirds of projects were completed within four weeks.
“Minor works grants are essential, with 72 per cent of schools indicating that the work completed was essential to the maintenance of buildings and grounds. Fifty five per cent of school buildings are in excess of 60 years old and hence in greater need of repair,” said Flynn.
The removal of the minor works grant would clearly have negatives effects on schools, said the CPMSCA. Half of schools said they would be unable to fund maintenance/repair work if the minor works grant was discontinued. Forty per cent said that this would lead to the deterioration of buildings, while 1 in four feel it would lead to a deterioriation of school grounds. In addition, 1 in 8 would have to seek voluntary contributions from parents in the future.
Although schools currently receive funding from the Department of Education, over 8-in-10 (86 per cent) also run ad-hoc fund raising pieces to raise additional funds. Over half of the schools looking for funds from other sources have seen a decrease in the amounts raised versus previous years, according to the survey.
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Schools with no heating,inadequate classrooms,mould on walls and porta cabins,yet announce we have money to extend the bloody luas to the tune of 325million,glad to see government have priorities in order
i am a manager of a community childcare centre and we get inspected by the HSE on our services and facilities. If the same criteria was put on schools as on us, there would be a lot of schools in deep trouble. The government should be held responsible for maintenance and upkeep for schools the same way they expect of us as childcare providers. it’s double standards if they enforce high standards in early years yet let things slide when it comes to primary schools because of penny pinching in budgets. it not fair on schools, teachers, the children and the parents.
While I agree that the current funding for schools is a joke, bringing the Luas into the argument is irrelevant. Billions worth of transport and infrastructure projects have been canceled due to lack of money. This just so happens to be the cheapest of the desperately needed projects.
Funding needs to be seriously examined in my opinion. My old secondary school, for example, hoarded funding (and ignored much-needed improvements) in order to construct a new foyer and spend €150,000 insuring a tapestry for 10 years. If schools can get away with throwing away money like that then this is what we can expect.
We’ve been recording the temperature each morning in the classroom when the children arrive , learning about in science. It was 14 today and yesterday. It gets warmer but I spent half the morning getting the children to run on the spot. Hard to heat an old building and our capitation grant has been halved apparently. Restrictions on photocopying and other basics too. Doesn’t make for an ideal learning environment.
Hi John, it’s mad that the government are let get away with it. If we got inspected by the HSE in my childcare centre and the temp was below 18c could be closed. There is only so much cutting the government can get away with with out having serious consequences.
Couldn’t agree more Mark, I really can’t see how taking more money from schools will benefit anyone. My children go to the school that was featured on rte news earlier. We got a txt yesterday morn to say that the school was extremely cold, make sure to wrap children up warmly. The school is a very old building, has lots of damp and leaky roofs among other things. There’s no money to employ a caretaker who may be able to fix minor problems as they arise. The government should be giving more money to schools and not taking it away. But they decide to give over €300 million to the Luas line. Yep cos the future is not our children it’s the Luas!
All schools are allocated money for cleaning staff, secretary and caretaker together. Perhaps it’s not being divided correctly?
Priorities are Important. Yes the schools should get more funds. The cost of heating has soared . Emergency funding should be give for heating purposes.I was listening to the minster this evening on live at five is it 340 million to for an extension of Luas. You might ask where is the priority . That thought occurred to me. They have money for that project but when it comes to our children they seem to be second rate. What can you Say?
I am not saying this as a political / secularist comment, but if you look at the economics of Irish education the one thing that has never made any sense to me is how we justify all the duplication of services.
If you take your typical town or city suburb there are usually umpteen different versions of primary schools and several versions of secondary schools.
Typically you have something like this in a suburban area / reasonable sized town:
Boys Catholic Primary School
Girls Catholic Primary School
Girls Catholic Primary School from slightly posher order of nuns.
Boys Catholic Primary School from slightly posher order of brothers/priests or whatever.
Mixed Church of Ireland Primary school.
Then possibly : Educate Together non-denomination and maybe a Gaelscoil
& maybe even a few more.
Then at secondary level you might have something like:
Boys Catholic School
Girls Catholic School
Maybe a semi-private fee paying school of some sort for either/both genders.
Possibly a mixed community school.
and possibly a protestant secondary school in some areas.
Every one of these schools has to have management overheads (including principal etc), administration overheads, building maintenance overheads etc etc etc.
Would it not be better to have one or two well-resourced schools in each community with a PTA-style management board that were open to EVERYONE in the community i.e. regardless of religion or gender.
(I’m sure the Gaelscoil could be facilitated by having it on a shared campus with access to shared facilities or something.)
At least that way we would have schools with things like libraries, psychological support services, a wide range of subjects, sports facilities, science facilities computer facilities, art facilities, drama facilities, music facilities, special needs supports, easy access by school transport to a single campus, and maybe heating, a water-tight roof, proper furniture, working lights, running water etc etc.
Most other countries (even the United States) have a model a bit like that where you have good quality, well-resourced community-centric schools rather than all these endless private institutions all being state-funded.
From what I can see our system gives you this vast array of schools, all essentially doing the same thing and struggling for limited resources.
Not only that, but it’s basically just unnecessarily dividing kids up by religious background, gender, and probably social class too.
Maybe it’s time we actually did a bit of root and branch reform?
Is the current system really what’s best for students, parents and teachers? Or, is it just something we have been stuck with because nobody ever thought about it?
I’m not saying I’m right and the system’s wrong, I just wonder what other people think…
Been to some schools with my work that should be condemned, they’re in such poor condition. It’s the local communities are keeping many of them going by fund raising which is a shocking indictment on this government.
If a school has not got a heating System Functioning right they should be able to get emergency money to put it right.In this day and age you cannot have Children in cold classrooms.
All theses school over crowded and in disrepair yet the government are trying to force close small rural schools that are in great condition, it would make better sense to bus children from over crowded urban schools to nearby rural schools struggle with their numbers. A newly built school 7 miles from where I live has just had two further class rooms built on to accommodate increasing numbers yet 4 schools within the surrounding area are under treat of closure because of numbers….. Bus children out to existing schools !
Strange how the usual FG/labour apostles who normally infest the journal with their daily dose of apologetic drivel tend to avoid stories like this.
why did the children’s referendum take place if this is FG idea of equality of education going to be differs from what the majority of people think of equality. Is the government now in breech of the children’s referendum with this report.
very few understood the referendum it’s too late now to become enlightened and ask questions.
Only large working class areas suffer this treatment where most of the FG/FF TD’s to went to private fee paying schools so never had any worry about poor rat infested moldy cold damp ports cabins.recent government lab discussion of cutting funds to the few paying schools the FG TD’s went ballistic at such a notion.
The solution is simple: ban ‘school contributions’, reduce child benefits for the top 50% of income earners by 20 Euros a month, and increase primary school funding by 120 Euro per child per annum.
Supporting your own school promotes ghettoisation of a public service.
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