Cash-strapped primary schools ‘face closure’

SCHOOL management bodies yesterday warned the Government that dozens of primary schools face closure because of the State’s failure to adequately fund education.

A total of 46 Catholic primary schools alone are in serious debt and only surviving with the financial support of their local diocese, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

One primary school in Dublin had amassed debts of almost €78,000 which had to be carried by the diocese because of the inability of parents and the local parish to raise such funds, it emerged.

In an unprecedented move, the heads of all school bodies, representing religious, multi-denominational, special needs schools and gaeilscoileanna came together to point out that many primary schools were facing a serious financial crisis unless current funding levels were doubled.

Although the Government has promised a 100% increase in capitation fees worth €80 million over the next five years, primary school bodies claim such funding needs to be delivered urgently.

They told a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education yesterday that the current capitation grant for primary pupils was €178 per pupil — compared to €331 for post-primary pupils.

Monsignor Dan O’Connor, general secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association, said all types of primary schools were increasingly dependent on loans, fundraising and voluntary contributions from parents, as Government aids and grants were not meeting their operating costs.

In one case, a nun had given up her retirement lump sum for 40 years of service to pay for refurbishment work on a schoolyard.

Monsignor O’Connor said all primary schools had been forced to fundraise to cover essential costs like insurance and heating.

He claimed the failure of successive governments to adequately fund the day-to-day requirements of schools had created a three-tier primary education system.

“The school community and area you are born into will determine what the local primary school can offer a child. So we have poor schools, struggling schools and wealthy schools,” said Monsignor O’Connor.

One primary school with 151 pupils received an annual grant of just over €22,000 to pay for a secretary, caretaker and cleaners, said Monsignor O’Connor.

Some schools were taken to the Labour Court because of the low salaries paid to staff, leading to a situation where members of the boards of management and parents had taken over such duties.

Monsignor O’Connor also criticised recent hikes in water charges which he claimed had already eaten into increases in schools’ budgets for 2008.

“It’s a case of money coming in from the Department of Education to go to the Department of Environment. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

He also gave examples of several schools which needed loans ranging from €10,000 to almost €40,000 to stay out of debt.

A survey by Educate Together, the association of multi-denominational schools, showed its 44 primary schools needed to raise a total of €1.5m this year in order to balance their books.

Educate Together chief executive Paul Rowe expressed concern that teachers felt increasingly undermined and demoralised by the lack of State support.

Representatives of multi-denominational schools and gaelscoileanna claimed the Government’s start-up grants were also insufficient to equip most new schools.