Painful choices in the classroom

Education Correspondent Niall Murray gets a snapshot of how the budget might be considered in a typical school staffroom and, while the school and the characters are fictional, the figures are very, very real

IT feels like much longer, but it’s 11 years since Mary started working at St Aidan’s, a 600-student secondary school in the suburbs.

She’s glad she didn’t take that gap-year to see the world after college, because the guy who started teaching art the year after her at the school is being left go in September.

The board of management has to let two staff go because the Department of Education has only given sanction for 31 teachers next year.

Mary will probably have 36 students in her Junior Certificate art classes next year instead of the 24 or 25 she usually had, although she expects the Leaving Certificate class will be smaller next year.

“Who could blame them?” she thinks.

She had to tell her transition year students yesterday they probably won’t be able to go to exhibitions because the school won’t be paid to have a substitute cover Mary’s classes if she brings the Leaving Cert class to a gallery for an afternoon.

Her Junior Cert classes might have been higher, but she can’t see Rosie and Catherine staying in school next year. They are members of the Travelling community and their parents are already struggling to keep them in school, but that will only get worse after the extra money the school gets for teaching Traveller children is withdrawn next September.

It also looks like the school might have to cancel the choir after their grant was stopped.

Most of the teachers will have to pay €200 a year just for parking outside the front door.

Mary was thinking about buying a bicycle, but a colleague reminded her she’s already going to be about €300 worse off despite paying less tax, because the 1% income levy which will cost her nearly €500.

“Maybe I’ll ask the principal if the school board will buy me a bike, we’re trying to get the kids thinking green after all,” thought Mary. Then she remembered, the school probably won’t have a spare cent — even after getting an extra €13,000 for its running costs — because of rising heating and electricity bills, never mind next year’s €2,100 water bill from the council, up more than €300.

They’ll also try and put some of the extra money towards making up for the €10,500 grant being withdrawn for extra classes and other expenses for running transition year. The school is also having to think twice about starting the Leaving Certificate Applied programme next year in an effort to try and keep more than a dozen students from dropping out of school each year.

The Department of Education has abolished the €21,500 in start-up grants, and the additional €2,000 a year it would have provided for extra resources.

It’s not clear yet, but there could be a few more staff looking for jobs in the summer. The school is no longer keeping the teacher posts it had when it was designated disadvantaged by the department, even though an awful lot of students are from families on the medical card.

Some of the extra money it used to get for tackling disadvantage is also being withdrawn next year.

Mary thought she remembered one of the Government ministers on the radio last week talking about the budget protecting the vulnerable in society.

“Must have been a dream,” she said to herself, walking back into a crowded class. “Just like my plans to take up the early retirement scheme when I’m 56 — they’re after doing away with too.”