Quinn urged to divert payments from fee-paying schools

Education workers have called on the Government to divert money paid to fee-paying schools to areas “of greatest need” in the education system.

A resolution was passed yesterday by non-teaching education staff at Impact’s annual conference in Kilkenny, where delegates passed a number of motions urging greater support for special needs assistants (SNAs) and staff working in vulnerable areas of the education sector.

One of the motions, proposed by the union’s VEC branch, demanded “that monies designated for the subvention of private schools be more properly diverted to areas of greatest need” within education.

Speaking in favour of the motion, Ger Lyons of the VEC branch, pointed out that Education Minister Ruairi Quinn— “a product of Blackrock College” — recently commissioned a report on the country’s 55 fee-paying schools which receive annual state funding worth over €90m.

“But these 55 schools bring in a staggering €117m in fees annually. This funds extra teachers and extra-curricular facilities.”

Two thirds of such schools have “discretionary spending” of over €1m and 25% have €2m in discretionary spending, he said.

In the non fee-paying sector, he said, “savage cuts” in special needs assistants and psychological support for marginalised students have led to cash-strapped parents having to fundraise to pay for basic services.

A proposal by the union’s school completion branch to refer the motion back to the executive for re-framing was rejected by delegates, and Mr Lyons’s proposal was carried.

Impact’s education division represents more than 10,000 non-teaching workers in the education sector.

The conference, which concludes today, also heard calls for greater co-operation between the teaching unions and Impact in a bid to fight education cuts and improve services.

Guest speaker Michael Moriarty, the general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association, questioned the ability of schools to manage amid cuts to staffing and resources, and said the role of principal was becoming “very unattractive”.

There was “anger” among principals because of proposed salary cuts and a belief that they will have to pick up the slack to keep schools afloat when resources have been reduced, said Mr Moriarty.

“Many principals seem to feel isolated and forgotten. This is most worrying for school management authorities who value greatly the quality of the professional and personal commitment of our principals. It is certainly worrying that the role of school principal is becoming very unattractive as a promotional post for these reasons, and this is a matter of concern for management bodies who need to have the best possible educational leaders in their schools.”