Education funding - Reform not a licence to cut courses

THE passion and sincerity that animated Brian Cowen’s speeches immediately after his election as Taoiseach were refreshing and immediately reflected in aconsiderable jump in Fianna Fáil’s opinion-poll rating.

One of the themes that led to this resurgence was his reiteration of his commitment to public sector reform.

If you’re a spokesman for one of the employer organisations you may argue that reform means cutting back an underfunded and sometimes inefficient service.

If you’re of a more centrist disposition, reform means getting the optimum performance for the resources invested. It means an improved service rather than a reduced cost. Is it possible that the Taoiseach means cuts rather than the reform or improved services we all hope for?

That fear is given a worrying whiff of substance by the suggestion that up to 20,000 hours of teaching time may be cut at the Cork Institute of Technology and its constituent colleges — the Crawford College of Art and Design, the Cork School of Music and the National Maritime College — in the next academic year because Higher Education Authority funding has not kept pace with increasing costs. CIT sources say the cut will be less significant but declined to quantify it.

All of this seems amazing, doubly so as it comes just a day after our third-level colleges again failed to make the premier league in an international survey of universities. Trinity, Ireland’s highest-ranked college, was listed as 223rd out of 4,000 colleges across the world, UCC was at 289. Education cuts are even more amazing when you consider that we have bet the family silver on a knowledge-based future. We already do education on the cheap, no matter how government blathers about increased spending. We spend just 4.6% of GDP on it but the OECD average — just the average — is nearly half that again at 6.2%.

CIT president Brendan Murphy has said that School of Music part-time courses — where children have learnt how to play an instrument for over a century — will end.

“Part-time courses will finish... the school won’t be taking applications for next year on certain current courses,” said Dr Murphy.

Does that mean less than two years after the magnificent, benchmark facility was opened, after a very considerable battle, that the very reason it was built is no longer the objective, no longer relative?

Can he really mean that our system will not provide a place for a child to learn a musical instrument using methods established and proven over generations?

Even though music is already taught at third level in Cork city, it is suggested that the emphasis at the school of music is to be shifted towards third level.

Why? Is it too sceptical to suggest that this is because third-level students are better earners and attract a higher level of funding than second level? Maybe it’s that having second-level students on the books might preclude the attainment of university status?

The CIT proposals are as yet unclear as very poor communications continue to characterise this saga.

However, any proposals that mean the opportunities available to earlier generations — even when we were nearly bankrupt and Charlie Haughey had us all tightening our belts — are to be axed then forget about it.

Reform and improved performance are long overdue but any suggestion that educational opportunities be denied under the guise of evolution or development will never be acceptable.