School funding can’t be topped up by parents

THE dangers of further cuts to school staffing and budgets will be worsened by the inability of families to make up the shortfalls, a parents’ leader has warned.

Tommy Walshe, president of the National Parents Council-Post Primary (NPC-PP), made his comments at the launch of a joint submission to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn by a group representing second level parents, teachers, principals and boards of management.

A further cut to the number of teachers that can be appointed has been flagged as a likely element of Mr Quinn’s 2012 budget to be unveiled next week, in addition to staffing cuts imposed two years ago, with the potential to save €80 million of the annual teachers’ pay bill of €3.85 billion.

But the Post-Primary Education Forum (PPEF) said it is unthinkable the pupil- teacher ratio will be worsened again when it would mean further reducing subjects offered to students, increases to class sizes, mixing higher and ordinary level students for more subjects and leaving more schools unable to offer programmes to support those at risk of dropping out.

The group also warned of the difficulties around day- to-day funding being cut again after a 5% cut this autumn and other grants being cut every year since 2009.

“As a result, an increasing proportion of total annual expenditure in a post-primary school must be raised through fundraising in the local school community. Much of this work is done by parent volunteers but in the current economic crisis, such levels of fundraising are no longer sustainable,” Mr Walshe said.

He said previous cuts in education have already had the hardest impact on students who need extra supports, but the cost of short-term thinking will be staggering: “It costs €77,222 to keep a single prisoner for a year and the stark statistic that 90% of prisoners in the State are early school leavers should speak for itself.”

Start Strong which represents groups focused on quality childcare and early learning yesterday urged the Government to keep the free pre-school year available to all families at no cost next year. Around 95% of eligible children took part in the first full year and Start Strong director Ciairín de Buis said Irish and international research shows investment in high quality early childhood care and education yields a high return for children who take part and for the State.