Cutbacks threaten basic right of immigrant children to learn English

THE National Education Welfare Board’s charter of children’s rights states, among other things, that every child has the right to an education.

This is an article worth bearing in mind for our public representatives who will compromise the education of all children, but in particular our ‘newcomer’ children if they proceed with the measures announced in the budget. Surely it is in this country’s economic and social interest to maintain the established standard of teaching and learning of ‘English as an additional language’ which currently operates in the primary schools of this State?

To dilute this system would be to risk producing a whole generation of newcomers who could not play a full and active role in society because of a deficit in their standard of English.