Class time for pupils at risk over staff cuts

Any more cuts to teacher numbers will leave second- level schools unable to provide the 28 hours of weekly classes all students must receive, management has warned.

A new survey shows most schools have reduced subject choices, mixed higher- and ordinary-level classes, or sent principals and deputy principals back to teaching to cope with the effects of additional hours for guidance counselling being withdrawn this year.

More than half of schools have sent guidance counsellors back to teaching as a result of the increase in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) adopted by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.

But the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), representing the board of 370 religious- owned secondary schools, said there is no more scope to fill timetables with fewer staff.

“Over the last four budgets, there have been successive reductions in teacher allocations to schools. If there’s another increase in the pupil-teacher ratio, the only option will be to look at cutting the 28 hours of class contact time,” said JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly.

Under Department of Education rules, all second- level students must get at least 28 hours of teaching every week.

Mr Kelly said: “Our schools have amalgamated classes, dropped subject options, stopped offering Leaving Certificate Applied [LCA] or other programmes, and there’s nothing left to do if the number of teachers available to them is cut again.”

Last month, at the Oireachtas education committee, Mr Quinn said teacher cuts were one of many options being considered, given that almost 80% of his €8bn budget goes on pay and pensions.

But, he also said a PTR increase at second level would impact more than at primary level, particularly in smaller schools where teacher losses could further limit subject choices.

Mr Kelly said he could only take comfort if there are no further cuts to front- line staff in the budget. Unwilling to comment on the alternative of cutting pay, he said Mr Quinn must look somewhere other than frontline services if there are to be cuts.

Among the 131 principals who answered the JMB survey on the effects of guidance hour losses, the biggest impact on students was considered to be the loss one-to-one counselling and career guidance.

One school’s counsellor, who offered individual support to 42 students last year, now deals only with emergency cases.

Some principals are sending transition year and LCA students out on work experience once a week or combining fifth-year and sixth-year classes to fill timetables.