This article is from page 3 of the 2012-04-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE majority of Clare secondary schools will lose at least one teacher next September, resulting in the subject choices available to students being cut and class sizes increasing.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) warned that approximately 16 full-time teaching posts will be lost in second-level Clare schools as a result of changes to guidance counselling provisions introduced in the last Budget.
From September, guidance counsellors will have to be provided from within the general teaching provisions of the school.
TUI President and Clare woman Bernie Ruane said, “These cuts will leave school principals with some harsh choices. They will have to choose between cutting back guidance provision, limiting subject choice, increasing class sizes or a combination of such measures. This latest cut to an education system already ravaged by a litany of cuts will result in significant further damage to the interests of students.”
Ironically, this cut to teaching posts is most likely to affect the stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) the Government say are paramount to the future of the economy.
The TUI maintains that as teacher numbers are being cut, principals will have to look at how best to serve all students with the reduced teaching provision available. Those options that currently attract less students for example, honours maths or physics – will inevitably be high on any shortlist of subjects under threat.
“The major threat is to subjects that we are being told to actively promote if education is to be a key driver in economic recovery,” Ms Ruane told