Education cuts ‘mock’ equality laws

A STRING of secondary school cuts imposed by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe are making a “mockery” of equality law and deliberately targeting the most vulnerable in society, it has been claimed.

Making the comments at an Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) meeting of equality branch officers in Dublin, union president Pat Hurley said the progress made in recent years in developing school services for vulnerable children are at risk of being wiped out.

According to the ASTI president, who was speaking to more than 50 local union equality officers from across the country, reducing the teacher-pupil ratio, special needs cuts, the loss of english language support staff and Traveller student cuts are deliberately targeting vulnerable pupils in an attempt to save money.