Class action over cuts

TWO schools. Two protests. Another day of anger at government cutbacks.

Frustrated parents withdrew their children from a rundown Limerick school yesterday after the Department of Education reneged on a promise of funding for a new school.

In Cork, primary and second-level children attending part-time music classes at Cork School of Music (CSM) took to the streets over planned cutbacks.

The entire enrolment of 127 boys and girls at Kilfinane primary school in Co Limerick were taken out of class in a day of action by parents over conditions at the school, which dates back to 1887.

The children still have to use an outside toilet and the entrance hall serves as an assembly room, staff kitchen and an arts and craft area.

Last February, former Education Minister Mary Hanafin told the school they would get the go-ahead for a new school by Easter. But the school was disappointed last month when newly appointed Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe told parents the new building could not go ahead as there was no money.

The local convent has donated a field for the proposed school, which will cost about €2 million.

Along with health and safety hazards, parents fear that as children have to leave the school building to go to the toilet, they are vulnerable. The Kilfinane parents’ council will meet on Monday night to plan further protests.

Meanwhile in Cork, the CSM Concerned Parents Group said it wants to meet CIT president Brendan Murphy and CIT’s governing body to get clarification about how belt-tightening across the institute will impact on their children’s music education.

Parents fear the 2,000 children attending classes at the school — comprising 94% of its student body — will bear the brunt of possible cutbacks.