This article is from page 22 of the 2008-10-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 22 JPG
“we have returned to days we thought we would never see in education again”.
He said the only hope is that when the parents and teachers stood up to Minister for Finance Brian Leni- han’s aunt Mary O’Rourke in 1987 the proposed cuts in education were overturned.
The President of the INTO main- tains that if the current cuts proposed by the Government are not over turned, the Ennis primary school area, which includes the county town and Shannon, will loose a total of 35 Keres ace
In east Clare up to eight teaching posts are under threat, north Clare could lose two teachers, while west Clare is expected to lose up to seven teachers.
“Schools that had enough pupils on its enrolment for another teacher next September now cannot appoint the teacher,” said Mr Kelleher.
In Tulla next year rather than secur- ing an extra teacher to cope with an increase in pupils the school faces the loss of one of its current teaching
staff. The school is facing a 30 pupil to one teacher ratio.
In such cases junior infants are pro- tected with smaller class sizes, which could result in 35 and more pupils per class in senior classes.
Parents in Lahinch have begun a petition in an attempt to prevent the cutbacks negatively affecting the lo- cal school.
Teachers of English to non-national pupils are also facing huge cuts, re- sulting in knock on effects across the
education sector.
“There is a Minister for Integra- tion, and the key to integration is to be able to use the English language. It is a key learning service,’ said Mr Kelleher.
“Many of the parents of these pu- pils haven’t the language to articu- late their view points, so it 1s up to us. This budget is hitting the vulner- able,’ said Mr Kelleher.
“This is the budget from hell,” he added.