This article is from page 18 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 18 JPG
EVERY second level school in Clare will lose at least one teacher, with one school in Ennis losing five, due to Budget 2009 cutbacks.
According to the ASTI every sec- ondary school will be down one teacher come September, resulting in schools losing out in subject variety and choice, and special education needs.
Students’ extra curricular activities and field projects will also be greatly
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Ger O’Donoghue of the ASTI standing committee for Clare, Lim- erick and Nenagh said that the full extent of the loss of teachers is not yet known. All schools will lose and the cuts will “affect some schools more than others”.
Schools with an open _ policy will suffer most according to Mr O’Donoghue, as English language support teachers will be capped at two per school, irrespective of how many pupils in the school need as-
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“We have these newcomer students coming to our schools and we pride ourselves in welcoming them to the school,” he said.
“These students are in _ classes where teachers are going to have problems integrating them with the other pupils.”
Initially an English language sup- port teacher was provided for every 14 students in a school. This allowed for a certain amount of withdrawal from class for extra tuition for stu-
dents whose first language is not English.
In the Budget the Government de- cided to cap the number of English language support teachers at two per school.
Mr O’Donoghue also maintains that the broad base of education will be affected by the cuts.
“There are some subjects that a smaller number of pupils opt for. Schools will now be forced to decide whether or not to keep these classes. It may not be possible to separate
pass and honours classes come Sep- tember,” he said.
“Tt will also have a huge affect of extra curricular activities. These form the basis of a rounded educa- WO )s Maen OLomncT-n LOR
Under the terms of the Budget sub- stitute teachers will no longer be available to cover teachers who are involved in school sports or field we 1Oe
‘How are schools going to manage in cases like that?” asked the ASTI rep.