Funding cut at music school to be minimal
The Irish Examiner has learned that just €140,000 will be cut from its annual teaching budget of €6 million.
The reduction represents less than 2% of its total teaching budget and is the equivalent to less than 5% of the school’s total teaching hours.
It means that the impact on the delivery of classes at CSM, especially the school’s renowned one-to-one teaching classes for junior, primary and second level students, is likely to be very minor. The news emerged ahead of a meeting this afternoon between college bosses and parents of primary and second level school children who attend music classes at the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) managed flagship school.
CIT encompasses the Bishopstown campus, the Crawford College of Art and Design, CSM and the National Maritime College of Ireland.
It has about 6,500 full-time students and a similar number of part-time students. Up to 2,000 primary and post-primary school children attend the part-time music classes at CSM. In a recent interview, CIT president Brendan Murphy indicated that some part-time courses will be discontinued, new ones introduced and that there would be some redundancies across the institute amid funding constraints.
The CSM Concerned Parents Group said they feared their children would bear the brunt of any potential cutbacks.
They protested with their children outside the CSM last week and called for face-to-face meetings with college bosses to seek clarification on what cutbacks are planned and to get guarantees that one-to-one music classes would not be affected. CIT said last week that there is no question of not providing the full range of music tuition that is currently available at CSM.
But the parents said they want further guarantees.
That meeting is due to take place this afternoon during which full details of the funding constraints and how they will impact on CSM, are expected to be outlined.
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