Families hit by €3,000 hike in education costs

EDUCATION costs for a family with three children — two at secondary school and one starting college — will jump by more than €3,000 next year as a result of the budget cutbacks.

That is according to figures published yesterday by the National Parents Council — Post Primary (NPCPP), and does not include the 1% levy on gross income up to €100,000.

The council is a member of the Post-Primary Education Forum (PPEF) which is supporting a protest outside the Dáil on Wednesday in a joint bid to put more post-budget pressure on the Government.

The group claimed that second-level schools are facing chaos and will struggle to meet day-to-day running costs as a result of the measures.

At a press conference in Dublin yesterday to highlight next week’s rally, president of the National Parent Council, Jim Moore, said they wanted parents of school-going children to find out how the budget impacted on their local school and inform their local public representative.

Mr Moore said the council would be calling for stern action to be taken in regard to the budget proposals.

General secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), Noel Merrick, said schools were going to face a “nightmare situation” in January when classes could not be supervised as a result of the withdrawal of substitute cover.

Mr Merrick said the JMB would be recommending to boards of management that they consider closing their school for health and safety reasons where they could not ensure the supervision of students by a teacher.

JMB general secretary, Ferdia Kelly, said it was a reality they had to face as a unified body, rather than leaving it to individual schools. “We cannot put children in our care at risk because there is no supervision,” he stressed.

Assistant general secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland, Declan Glynn, said the loss of 880,000 teaching hours could not be “absorbed” by schools and the same level of service provided.

It could only be done by eliminating optional and marginal subjects and making the school week shorter for pupils, he added.

He said many of the cuts were targeted at disadvantaged families.

“Some of the cuts were so heinous as to be shameful,” he said.

NPCPP spokeswoman Rose Tully said children with special needs would suffer because of the cuts.

President of the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools, Mary Mullarkey said Education Minister, Batt O’Keeffe needs to “sit down with us to find solutions to these problems” .