Budget has gone after soft targets: The young and vulnerable

The principals of 12 Cork primary schools — all in the Department of Education’s DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) disadvantage scheme — have written the following letter to local TDs to highlight how Budget 2012 will affect them and their pupils:

We are afraid that people do not realise how severe the latest cuts are.

The headline on education.ie tells us ‘Minister Quinn Prioritises Frontline Services on Education’.

But frontline staffs of the schools on the northside of Cork City are not being protected. With the proposed cuts, an approximate total of 40 frontline teachers will be lost to our 12 schools.

There has been a quiet revolution over the past number of years in DEIS schools, where children learn through the caring relationships they have with teachers in smaller classes and through small group work.

These cuts in teacher numbers will make class sizes bigger, especially in the junior classes, and make group work impossible. Our schools are committed to raising standards. It is the small class sizes and, consequently, the attention that children get and the relationships they have with their teachers that has pushed up reading and maths standards.

Our pupils have flourished, emotionally and developmentally and parents are very involved in their children’s education. Progress has been slow but enormous. Cutting out DEIS legacy posts endangers all this progress.

Vulnerable children need to be cared for now more than ever, when families are pushed to the brink during a recession, when the communities in our urban areas are coming under increasing pressure.

Our DEIS schools are at the frontline of dealing with severe disadvantage, anti-social behaviour and traumatised children.

Previous governments understood the nature of disadvantage and prioritised these children for support, succour and a helping hand. In this budget, they have been prioritised to be hit hardest and appear to carry the vast majority of cuts of teachers. Without the frontline staff, things are only going to get worse.

While Ruairi Quinn is telling schools to focus on maths and English, the budget is taking away the means to do this from the most vulnerable children. The budget is cutting teachers in the youngest classes of the most disadvantaged schools.

In some schools, the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) in junior sections will go up by seven (from 15:1 to 22:1) which, in reality, means classes will be doubled up and the children will get half the amount of attention. This change in PTR shows a lack of understanding of disadvantage and the importance of the early school years.

Huge progress has been made in all our schools regarding reading and maths. Money spent on recent successful initiatives to improve maths and English in DEIS schools will now be wasted. These programmes can not be implemented with larger classes and less staff. The legacy of this government will be the collapse of maths and English standards in DEIS schools.

These cuts come on top of cuts to special education, the cutting of supply teacher panels, the abolition of resource teachers for Travellers, the cutting of language support teachers and the 10% cut in resource teaching hours.

The young and vulnerable are a soft target and the cuts seem to be focused on the point of least resistance.

Adopting a one-size-fits-all method for the general allocation model (GAM) of learning support teaching does not take into account the higher proportion of children with learning difficulties in DEIS schools. It does not account for the context and circumstances of the children in DEIS schools relative to other schools.

GAM changes will make our Reading Recovery and Maths Recovery programmes unsustainable.

The cutting of support councillor teachers is a huge loss to vulnerable children whose behaviour needed to be supported. It is also a loss to their families and all the schools in our group, as these teachers shared their expertise with many schools.

These cuts are not an example of cutting waste in the public sector but they will take educational opportunities away from the most disadvantaged children in Ireland.

Of course the economic situation is appalling and choices have to be made, but this government has chosen to target DEIS primary schools to bear the brunt of the cuts.

* The principals of St Vincent’s Convent NS, St Mary’s Road; St Mary’s on The Hill, Knocknaheeny; Scoil Padre Pio, Churchfield; Scoil Cholmcille CBS, Blarney St; North Presentation Primary School, Gerald Griffin St; Scoil Mhuire Fatima, North Monastery; Scoil Íosagáin, Farranree; Scoil Aiséirí Chríost, Farranree; Sundays Well Girls’ NS; Sundays Well Boys’ NS; St Mark’s NS, The Glen; St Brendan’s NS, The Glen.