Dublin People - School appeals over teacher setback

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School appeals over teacher setback

Thursday, 29 May 2008

A PRIMARY school on the Northside is making a strong appeal to the Department of Education not to go ahead with expected cutbacks that would see it lose a teacher for the next school year.
St Peter and Paul National School, Baldoyle, was dismayed at a recent proposal to have its number of teaching staff reduced by one.
The school is one of three national schools on the Northside that have been informed of the cutbacks.
Donal O’Donoghue, principal of St Peter and Paul National School, told Northside People that such a move was flying in the face of Government promises to reduce class sizes in schools.
Mr O’Donoghue said the school has appealed the decision and he has called on the new Minister for Education Batt O’Keefe (FF) to urgently deal with the impending crisis.
He said the school has been pleased to have nine teachers on its books for its 232 pupils and that taking one away now didn’t make much sense.
“We have eight full years at the school from junior infants right up to sixth class pupils,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
“The extra teacher has meant that we have been able to split our junior infants into two classes, giving the younger kids a decent introduction to school life in smaller classes.
“We are expecting over 30 new junior infants next year and they will all now have to be put together into the one class, which is a big blow.”
The school principal said the decision to cut a teacher back from St Peter and Paul National School has hinged on the fact that, since last October, the school had predicted there would be a slight decrease in the number of pupils at the school next year.
“However since January, our figures show that we will have more pupils in the school next year than this year, but as the Department makes its decision on these things as early the previous October, this is unlikely to cut any ice with them now,” Mr O’Donoghue stated.
He has called on Minister O’Keefe to immediately look into the situation.
“I know the new Minister is busy reading himself into his brief, but we are more than half way through May now and we will need a definite decision on this as soon as possible,” he said.
Dublin North East TD Terence Flanagan (FG) said he was extremely disappointed to hear that three primary schools in the area were losing teachers.
“Fianna Fail in its election manifesto promised that it would reduce class sizes to 26.” Deputy Flanagan said.
"It has now done a U-turn and stated that class sizes will remain at 27 and the new Minister has ordered principals to let teachers go.
"As it stands 27 and even 26 pupils in a class is too large and I now call on the Minister for Education to re-instate these teaching posts immediately,” Deputy Flanagan added.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education told Northside People that if enrolments fall in a school, it can lead to a loss of a teacher.
She said an independent staffing appeals process is available to boards of management of individual schools who are unhappy with the loss of a teacher.
Schools can submit an appeal under certain criteria to the Appeal Board, which was established to adjudicate on appeals on mainstream staffing allocations in primary schools.
Speaking recently in relation to calls for immediate changes to the staffing schedule, Minister O’Keeffe said "the programme for Government commitments are predicated on the availability of finance. I clearly would like to meet those commitments and I will be working towards that as the overall budgetary situation permits."

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