School lists - More cash, not cuts, is the issue

IT IS encouraging to see the Teachers’ Union of Ireland take up the cudgel on behalf of those it says are at an educational disadvantage.

The TUI, which has about 12,000 members, has declared that schools that exclude children with special needs, foreign nationals or Travellers should be “named and shamed”. The union’s assistant general secretary, John MacGabhann, claimed the department must implement a more “aggressive policy” if the “ghettoisation” of schools is to be curtailed. “The department should name, shame and bleed them dry,” he suggested.

“There are schools now where the majority of students comprise of special needs, international students and Travellers. These... are becoming de facto special schools because the traditional cohort of students is being sent elsewhere,” he said.