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Friday, August 07, 2009
SECOND-level teachers and managers have rejected Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s assertion that only 240 teaching posts will be lost in their schools this autumn after provisional figures showed 3,600 fewer jobs.
The Department of Education is still finalising staff allocations to the country’s 730 second-level schools which had 26,276 teaching posts in the last school year. But figures published on its website yesterday led to suggestions that the minister’s prediction of the effects of various second level cutbacks after last October’s budget were unrealistic. At the initial staff allocation stage earlier this year, there were 990 fewer teachers than the same time last year, but the latest figures show a difference of 3,615 jobs between allocations up to early June and the final number of posts last year.
Officials have completed a third of the extra allocation process and most of the remainder of approvals are expected to be for teachers working with special needs students, as well as language support and Traveller teachers. Just more than 4,000 additional posts were allocated last year but the final allocation will not be known until the end of the year.
The department said that it still expects that, based on increased enrolments, there would be 240 fewer second-level teachers.
Most of any reductions will be caused by increasing the number of students schools need to appoint each teacher from 18 to 19, while cuts are also being made to language support staffing.
Teachers’ Union of Ireland general secretary Peter MacMenamin said the figures suggest close to 2,000 fewer posts when the process is finished, as the union has predicted since October. He said the department is being strict on concessionary posts, around 2,000 of which are normally allowed for schools where teacher losses would lead to the axing of minority subjects.
"This will lead to many subjects not being offered, which could be the difference between keeping students at some schools in education or not," Mr MacMenamin said.
The figures indicate around 14% fewer second level teachers at this stage in the allocation process but show student numbers are up 2% in vocational schools, compared with 1% in others.
"We always felt there would be around 800 second-level teachers lost and our view hasn’t changed based on these figures," said Irish Vocational Education Association general secretary Michael Moriarty.
The Joint Managerial Body, representing 400 secondary schools, said students with special education needs could lose specialist teachers as subject teachers who would otherwise lose their jobs might be asked to take on those duties.
"Fewer teachers means larger classes, elimination of programmes such as Transition Year and Leaving Certificate Applied, and higher and ordinary level Leaving Cert students being taught in the same class," said JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly.
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