Schools forced to learn harsh reality of broken promises on education
IT'S like a picture from the archives. Children huddled around a fire in a rundown classroom.
However, the photograph above, which was taken yesterday is the harsh reality as hundreds of schools throughout the country struggle to operate in appalling and neglectful conditions.
Politicians and party activists canvassing for the local elections in June can expect to be grilled by angry constituents on broken promises and the failure by the authorities to lift many of this country's primary and post-primary school buildings out of the dark ages.
The board of management of one school, promised a building before the general election, but still waiting for work to begin, said it has uncovered a "murky trail of deceit, misinformation and misrepresentation".
Jerry Kelliher, principal of Aghina NS, near Macroom and Fr David O'Herlihy, chairman of the board, said the public will reach this conclusion when the details of their project are made public.
Political commentators share the opinion that Fianna Fáil and their PD colleagues in Government risk losing local authority seats across the country because they are seen to have reneged on promises to deliver building programmes to dilapidated schools.
The Government is fighting hard to place the spotlight not on those schools without adequate heating or sanitary facilities, nor those which let the rain in through leaking roofs, but instead on those which are included in the School Building Programme for 2004.
Parents, boards of management and teachers, who feel neglected by the Government, are awaiting the opportunity to make their feelings known through the ballot.
Children in another primary school huddled around open fires yesterday their only source of heat. Five years ago they were promised a new building.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the Department of Education stressed that this year's allocation of €378 million in the School Building Programme for 2004 was unprecedented.
Already, 200 school projects are underway under this programme, which will see major improvements in 200 primary and 187 post-primary schools throughout the country.
The original 2004 allocation for primary school buildings was €190m and €167m for post-primary school buildings.
A further €30m investment was announced as part of the Budget, bringing the overall total allocation to €387m, the spokesperson said.
As Education Minister Noel Dempsey visits Cork tonight, as part of his Your Education System (YES) roadshow, teachers and parents said there is a growing sense of anger at the number of delayed or deferred projects.
Last night, INTO spokesman Denis Bohan said while Mr Dempsey has made progress, there are still hundreds of sub-standard school buildings.
"It is deplorable that children at the Kyle School sit around open fires," he said.
He also agreed with the principal of Ballygown NS, who described unfulfilled promises as "an election gimmick".
Mr Bohan said Mr Dempsey has tried to resolve the situation by getting extra money for schools.
"If roads can be a priority, if stadia can be a priority, then I can't understand why schools can't be," he said.
Aghina NS was promised a building, budgeted by the department at €729,281, before the election.
Nine firms tendered and the lowest €610,000 was recommended to the department in October 2002.
In January 2003, the school was on a list of projects supposed to proceed that year.
But 12 months later, Aghina had been downgraded to a list for small primary schools needing modernisation. The school was offered €250,000 for remedial works.
In a letter to Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan last month, Mr Dempsey said: "As no cost savings could be achieved, the proposed project did not proceed to construction."
'It was an election gimmick. The situation is chronic. We have an autistic child and no facilities. The whole thing is disgraceful'
BUILT in 1959, Ballygown National School has 65 pupils and three teachers who struggle along in conditions which are not very conducive to learning.
The school has two classrooms which each measure 32.5 sq ft, less than half the recommended size.
To facilitate the new curriculum children have to move big, old-fashioned desks out of the classrooms to enable them take part in drama.
Teachers have to eat their lunch in the corridor or in the classroom and there are no proper facilities available for resource and learning support teachers who visit the school, or a room for the school's secretary.
There is also no storage space in the school.
In 1995 the board of management started looking for a new general purpose room. On September 22, 2000, then Minister for Education Michael Woods approved design works on a one classroom extension, a general purposes room and a staff room.
The school was put on the INTO's list of substandard schools in March 2002.
According to principal Nora Moroney, on May 3, 2002, just a month before the general election, they were told that the design team would make its full plans available to the department. All was going well until January 2003 when the department dropped the bombshell. Ballygown was not considered to be an emergency. Last Tuesday, Ms Moroney rang the department again, to find they still hadn't given approval for planning.
"It was an election gimmick as far as I'm concerned. The situation is chronic. We have an autistic child at the school and no proper facilities for her. In this day and age the whole thing is disgraceful," Ms Moroney said.
RATHCORMAC National School was built in 1948 and has 136 pupils, many of whom are taught in one of the five portacabins used by the school.
Cramped conditions are an everyday fact of life in the school. But there was a ray of light when the Department of Education wrote to the board of management on November 8, 2000, saying it had requested the Office of Public Works to find a site for a new school in the village.
Parents and teachers were delighted, especially as 600 houses were being planned locally and it was obvious the existing building wouldn't bed adequately. Then disaster struck.
"On October 2, 2002, the chairperson of the board of management was informed that for financial reasons the Department of Education wasn't in the position to proceed with the purchase of a site for a new school," said principal Margaret Howard.
"The letter said the acquisition of a site would be considered in the future. They have now reverted us back to refurbishment/extension which is to go to advanced architectural planning. It's ironic that the site was needed in 2000 and not in 2004 when the need is even greater, but yet we're down for refurbishment," she said.
Staff are struggling along with no general purposes room and speech and drama classes have to be undertaken in a nearby community centre.
Ms Howard was highly critical of the fact that they have to rent three of the portacabins, which is costing €29,000 per year.
"How long are the children of Rathcormac going to be deprived. I think it's morally wrong and shows a total lack of vision by the Department of Education," she said.
Before the 2002 election, the then minister said the project would go ahead but they're still waiting.
AGHINA National School near Macroom, Co Cork, is a 92-year-old, 25-pupil school.
The school's board of management submitted proposals to the Department of Education for improvements to the school building in 1996.
The department responded in 1998 with plans for a completely new school building.
A site was chosen, negotiations began on its purchase, and in December 1999, planning permission was finally applied for.
It was granted in March 2001. In July, the Office of Public Works bought the site but in February 2002, lack of progress forced parents to withdraw their children from classes in protest at conditions.
Before the 2002 general election, the then Minister for Education Michael Woods told local politicians the school project would proceed to tender.
In August of that year, the project was finally put to tender, nine were received, and the lowest tender, €119,228 lower than the department's own estimate, was recommended in October. The school was listed on the department's school building project in January 2003.
But by December of that year, the school was bumped off the list.
The board of management was invited to take part in an initiative for small primary schools to undertake building and modernisation works on a devolved basis.
Only €250,000 was being available under the initiative enough only to refurbish the existing school, rather than build a new school.
Up to €200,000 has been spent by the department on buying the site and associated fees to date.
The Southern Health Board's Dr Eimear Lavelle said the school was sub-standard. Roll numbers are falling as a result of the conditions there.
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