DELEGATES REPRESENTING 14,500 members of the TUI yesterday voted unanimously for a campaign of opposition, including industrial action, to protest at Government cutbacks which the union says will seriously damage the Irish education system.
Some 450 delegates backed the proposal by the union’s executive for a campaign of opposition to the cuts. They fully supported an amendment from its branch at Carlow Institute of Technology that would allow for industrial action including a work to rule in protest at the proposals.
The proposal will also see TUI members refusing to co-operate with work practice changes imposed as cost-cutting measures as well as the lobbying of politicians and political candidates in the forthcoming local and European Parliament elections in June.
Support for the proposal was led by TUI president Don Ryan, who warned that the cutbacks will have a catastrophic effect, with students suffering through increased class sizes and reductions to programmes and initiatives which will seriously impact on vulnerable students.
In his presidential address, Mr Ryan pointed out that Ireland’s education system was already serious underfunded even during a period of budget surpluses, with the OECD ranking the Ireland at 27 out of 29 countries, but the Government’s cuts was going to damage the system further.
The change in the staffing schedule will lead to the loss of 1,200 teaching posts at second level including 420 in the VEC sector which means that every school of 360 pupils will lose a teacher with a resultant reduction of 33 class periods per week, he said.
“In fact, 1.3 million classes of teaching will be lost each year resulting inevitably in larger class sizes, amalgamation of classes and loss of subject choice,” said Mr Ryan, adding that larger class sizes would make it more difficult for schools to foster positive behaviour as research points to smaller classes making for better learning.
Describing the moves as “ill-conceived, ill-timed and illogical”, Mr Ryan went on to warn that cuts to the Junior Cert schools programme, the Leaving Cert applied and the Leaving Cert vocational programme would have a devastating effect as they are designed to specifically cater for students of lower academic ability.
“The slashing of the capitation grant for Traveller children by 50 per cent is another attack on a vulnerable student cohort,” said Mr Ryan. He added that the withdrawal of funding for books was “an unbelievably hostile act” as thousands of parents already suffering as a result of the Budget will not be able to afford new schoolbooks for their children.
“Many of them will have to resort to charity for assistance,” said Mr Ryan, before roundly condemning Government proposals to re-impose a ceiling of two on the number of English language support teachers per school as “a further impediment to minority ethnic students”.
“What chance does a student have if he or she doesn’t understand the language used in the classroom?
“Learning English is not a luxury for these students – it is essential to their very survival and the social cohesion of our communities,” said Mr Ryan.
Mr Ryan said the Government should see investment in education as key to economic recovery. He pointed out that the TUI had presented a six-point plan to both the Government and Opposition parties, pinpointing the importance of reskilling and retraining.
The institutes of technology and the further education sector are best-equipped to provide reskilling programmes, he said.
