Parents and students make up for school cutbacks

PARENTS and students are being forced to pay for a significant chunk of education cutbacks through increased school donations and payments for regular school activities, a survey of second-level schools has found.

As well as the loss of teachers, some subjects and programmes being dropped and fewer staff to do administrative work, schools are reporting that they have had to increase voluntary contributions charged to parents.

While the figures being charged are not published in the survey of 20 schools by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), one said that it doubled the fee this year from €40 to €90, which is still considerably less than what is charged by many schools. Half of the surveyed schools said they had to increase the voluntary contribution sought from parents, while 80% have introduced student charges for specific activities, including the purchase of materials for home economic and science classes.

The trend may prove a further embarrassment to the Government in its ambition to create greater interest in science subjects, with another ASTI study this week revealing that up to one-third of second-level schools may have dropped the teaching of at least one science subject by next autumn because of cuts.

As schools continue to struggle with reduced budgets and limits on extra-curricular activities because of restricted funding they are also having to dig deeper to accommodate students whose families are hit with unemployment and reduced incomes.

The ASTI research found that 15 of the 20 surveyed schools have increased their hardship fund. A girls’ secondary school in Kerry has had to pay for all of some students’ schoolbooks, as well as their school transport fees and mock exam charges.

The union’s convention in Galway next week will debate the public service pay and reform deal, to which its standing committee expressed total and vehement objection on Thursday. However, a decision on whether to recommend its 18,000 members accept or reject the deal will be decided by ASTI’s 180-member central executive council next Friday.

The deal requires all teachers to be available an extra hour a week for management, planning and other duties, with second- level teachers to be available an additional three hours a week for supervision and substitution. In return, no further pay cuts would be imposed by the Government over the next four years as long as the economy does not worsen.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) national executive is recommending rejection of the deal, although a decision on whether to ballot all 14,500 members will be made at next week’s TUI annual congress in Ennis. The 30,000 members of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) will be balloted after Easter with a recommendation from its executive to accept the deal.

TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin yesterday warned that higher numbers of students will drop out of school if the education system is not properly funded because of a projected 20% rise in student numbers over the next 15 years.