€25m cut for fee-paying schools ‘will cost jobs’
A €25 million cut in Government support for fee-paying schools would end up costing jobs in a sector already affected by education cutbacks, a teachers’ union has claimed.
An Bord Snip Nua recommended the 25% cut over a number of years in the €101 million paid annually towards teachers’ salaries in the 58 fee-paying second-level schools. It said the schools raise €119m a year from fees and, with other income from religious orders and other sources, they should be required to meet a greater proportion of their own costs.
The report said this could be achieved by allocating one teacher for every 28 pupils from Department of Education funding, instead of the current one to 18 schedule.
The fee-paying sector is already being hit by a clawback in state support from September, when schools will be funded one teacher for every 20 students, whereas the ratio is only being changed to 19:1 for second-level schools in the non-fee-charging sector.
“The cutbacks in education announced last October have resulted in some redundancies in fee-paying schools and we would be concerned that this proposal would lead to further redundancies,” said a spokesperson for the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI).
The Joint Managerial Body which represents all religious-run second-level schools, including those that charge fees, told an Oireachtas committee in April that loss of state support would push up the fees charged, reducing student numbers. This, they said, would mean more teachers in the free education system and little or no saving to taxpayers.
A number of fee-charging schools have already laid off teachers, due largely to reduced public funding for the next year and falling student numbers.
Meanwhile, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland has warned that Bord Snip Nua’s proposal to cut a further 1,000 language support teachers could lead to the ghettoisation of minority ethnic children within and outside school communities. From September, schools will have about 700 fewer language support staff because of budget cuts.
