Sell your gold to save teaching post, priest asks Church

A priest in Limerick who chairs the board of management of a school in one of the country’s most disadvantaged communities has appealed to the Church to sell off its "dusty and unused gold" to help save an under-threat teaching post in his parish.

Moyross parish priest Fr Tony O’Riordan said Corpus Christi primary school, located less than 5km from the home of the minister for education, has had to privately hire a teacher after the department pulled funding for the teaching post a week before mid-term break. It is understood the teaching post had been under review for some time.

Fr O’Riordan said the school had now taken the decision to employ a teacher privately for as long as they can raise the funds.

He said the school has funding in place for a month but he issued an plea for help last night.

“I am appealing to churches and parishes around the country who have gold vessels and religious goods stored away and unused to consider selling these goods for a greater good,” Fr O’Riordan said.

“While we will not give up the campaign to lobby the department to meet its responsibilities, [but] we will not let these children suffer education disadvantage if we can help it, and so we are appealing for help — we are asking that churches disposes of luxury goods to help us pay for an essential good.

“I know that many families have been forced to sell some gold and jewellery in recent years just to make ends meet, and I know that the Church family up and down this country has many gold objects gathering dust, so I hope that those with charge of these goods might listen to this appeal and help us meet the needs of these disadvantaged children and give them an opportunity for their God-given gifts to flourish.”

The removal of the teaching post left the school facing the prospect of merging two junior infant classes in to a 32-pupil class.

Fr O’Riordan said it would have left the class with a teacher-pupil ratio of 1:32 which is 50% over the department’s ratio for DEIS schools.

“How could that lead to anything other that poorer educational outcomes for these children?” he asked.

He said the school just couldn’t stand over that situation and decided to hire a teacher privately. The teacher who has been hired with the help of a local bag-packing fundraising drive starts work today but Fr O’Riordan said if they couldn’t raise extra cash by the end of the month, the post would be gone.

The salary for the job is around €30,000, and Fr O’Riordan said they would be delighted if they could raise €20,000 through this appeal. “It would mean we could keep an appropriate teacher/pupil ratio in place and it allow us to continue to lobby the department for the resources to get the job done,” he said.