Schools avoid fresh cuts, but ‘still struggling’

The absence of any new cuts in the 2014 education budget for schools does not mean things are getting any easier, a principals’ leader has claimed.

Kay O’Brien, National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) president, said maintaining staffing ratios and other systems for next year will only stop a bad situation from getting worse, particularly with no extra funding for disadvantaged schools or for special education.

In addition, she said, the previously-announced budget cut of 1% leaves principals with an even harder job next year in deciding which bills to pay each month. She said the children in the schools of delegates at the NAPD conference have had their child benefit cut repeatedly, their pupil-teacher ratios worsened, and are sitting in bigger classes.

“[They] have fewer subject options available to them, the most vulnerable have had their special needs resources reduced; [they are the children] who, I am ashamed to say, in all too many cases, are going to school hungry and ill-clad.”

But Ms O’Brien said they would be further failed if reform of the curriculum is not properly resourced and planned. While there is welcome vision in plans to reform the junior cycle, she said teachers and principals are concerned about the assessment changes proposed, and significant unease about the decision to abolish the Junior Certificate.

The NAPD president called for proper resourcing of teacher training but also to allow schools assign an assistant principal dedicated to overseeing the introduction of the new junior cycle.

Department of Education director Alan Wall said that parents’ views about new assessment methods have also been considered, and there is time before the first assessment in English in late 2015 to get things right.