Cuts will hit poorer students

POORER students at schools not officially recognised as disadvantaged will be discriminated against by the budget’s education cutbacks, it has been claimed.

The Department of Education is withdrawing extra supports from schools previously designated as disadvantaged as one of the savings measures for 2009. Those schools not included in the department’s Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) scheme, under which around one-in-five of the country’s 4,000 schools received extra resources since 2006, had continued to get reduced supports. This will end in September.

Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Association, said children should not be punished because of their address.