Angry parents protest against loss of up to 13 teachers

ANGRY parents have gathered in protest outside a primary school to voice their opposition to proposed cuts which could see the loss of up to 13 teachers at the school.

Up to 80 worried mothers and fathers protested yesterday at Scoil Íosagáin, Farranree, on the northside of Cork City, at the cutbacks announced in the budget.

Aidan Brady from Fairhill, whose son Alex, 12, is in fifth class, said any reduction in teacher numbers would have a detrimental effect on education.

“It’s going to run this school down, the one time we need education more than ever in the country, and we need to be pushing our children towards a better education they are taking it away from us,” he said.

“Alex was very shy when he came to this school, but with these teachers’ help he’s really flourished, he really has, and that’s largely due to the extra work these teachers put in. They are fantastic.”

Mary Stephens from Farranree is worried that her son Ross, 4, who is in junior infants, will not get the attention he needs if he is in a bigger class. “There’s only 15 in his class, and you wouldn’t believe what he’s able to do, with the writing, reading and the words ... and it’s because of these small classes.”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Duggan from Farranree, who has nine-year-old twins, Scott and Lee, in third class, is worried that one of her sons, who had help from a remedial teacher last year, will fall behind in a bigger class.

“They are not going to get the attention at all,” she said.

Under the Breaking the Cycle programme, introduced in the mid-1990s, class sizes at Scoil Íosagáin were capped at 15 for the first four years of school.

The principal, Liam Beausang, who is working together with all the affected principals of schools on the northside of Cork City to reverse the proposed cuts, said the loss of up to 13 teachers over three years would mean bigger class sizes.

“There is that fear the results will not be as high, the success rates will not be as great if the pupil teacher ratio is increased — the loss of staff will obvious impact on extra curricular activities,” he said.

Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien, who has a son at the school, said the cuts should not go ahead.

“The first three or four years of a child’s education are the most important. It’s at that stage that you need the small classes because it gives teachers an opportunity to identify any learning difficulties children may have, any behavioural issues. If you don’t address them early then it’s going to have severe consequences for those individuals.”