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24/10/2008
Major Battle Looms Over Education Cutbacks
Teachers, parents and school managers are meeting in Dublin today to discuss their concerns about education cutbacks announced in the Budget.
The education cutbacks will lead to larger class sizes in Irish schools and a loss of substitution cover for absent teachers, and the Government looks set to face another major outcry on the issue only a week after surrendering the cuts imposed in the medical-card scheme for over 70s.
However, Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted on Thursday that the education cuts announced in the Budget would not be reversed, despite growing pressure.
Speaking at a briefing for Irish journalists during his trade mission to China, Mr Cowen said: "We have to respect the budgetary parameters that we have.
"We've made that decision; it's one of the decisions we had to make in the education area in order to compensate for other add-on costs which were unavoidable, and that's the context in which these decisions are taken."
A Labour Party motion calling for a reversal of the decision to increase class sizes will be debated in the Dáil next week as teachers and school managers step up their campaign to have the decision reversed.
The Association of Secondary Teachers says up to 1,500 teachers will lose their jobs as a result of the cuts, significantly more than the figure of 200 put forward by the Minister for Education.
(DW)
The education cutbacks will lead to larger class sizes in Irish schools and a loss of substitution cover for absent teachers, and the Government looks set to face another major outcry on the issue only a week after surrendering the cuts imposed in the medical-card scheme for over 70s.
However, Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted on Thursday that the education cuts announced in the Budget would not be reversed, despite growing pressure.
Speaking at a briefing for Irish journalists during his trade mission to China, Mr Cowen said: "We have to respect the budgetary parameters that we have.
"We've made that decision; it's one of the decisions we had to make in the education area in order to compensate for other add-on costs which were unavoidable, and that's the context in which these decisions are taken."
A Labour Party motion calling for a reversal of the decision to increase class sizes will be debated in the Dáil next week as teachers and school managers step up their campaign to have the decision reversed.
The Association of Secondary Teachers says up to 1,500 teachers will lose their jobs as a result of the cuts, significantly more than the figure of 200 put forward by the Minister for Education.
(DW)
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