Offaly’s Rural Schools Threatened By New Quinn Cut
Thursday, 19 January 2012
EDUCATION cuts could rip the heart out of rural Offaly, it was claimed this week.
Small schools in the county could be forced to close in the coming years with Broughal one of those under particular pressure.
Meetings of teachers and public representatives will be taking place and a campaign of action will be mounted against proposals from Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.
Local INTO (Irish National Teachers' Organisation) leaders and an Independent member of Offaly County Council, Cllr John Leahy, said changes in the criteria whereby schools qualify for a fourth teacher threaten the very existence of those schools. Jonathan Dunne, secretary of the Banagher INTO branch, and a teacher in Rath, said that of the 21 schools in his area, 14 have four teachers or less.
‘All of them could be in danger in theory, or at least seven or eight of them, with some even being forced into closure,' said Mr Dunne.
‘Over the past week we've seen the Labour TDs put pressure on Ruairi Quinn to reverse the DEIS schools cuts and they're doing that successfully and we're looking to our TDs to do a similar thing with our schools,' he added.
While the Government is not proposing to worsen the pupil/teacher ratio, it is changing the staffing schedules.
Currently, if a school has 12 pupils or more it is entitled to two teachers, the minimum number for future viability.
Under the Minister's plan, the 12-pupil threshold will increase to 14, and increase incrementally until 2015.
In that year, a school will require 20 pupils if it is to have two teachers. What is also causing
concern for those in primary education is that the enrolment rules for four-teacher schools will also increase.
At the moment, schools with 81 pupils are entitled to four teachers. By 2015 the school will have to have 86.
Any drop in enrolment in one year could result in schools losing a teacher and local
boards of management then being
faced with a decision to consider closure of their own school.
‘We are seeing this taking place across all the pockets of rural Ireland,' said Mr Dunne. 'There are 1,500 schools across all Ireland which have four teachers or less.'
Cllr Leahy said there are 28 pupils in the two-teacher Broughal National School, and like other schools of its size or even smaller, the
staffing schedule changes had the potential to close it down. Speaking at a meeting of Offaly County Council on Monday, Cllr Leahy said over 30 schools in the whole county could be affected by a move which was resulting in 'the heart of rural Ireland being cut out'.
‘This is a sneaky way of trying to close small rural schools,' said Cllr Leahy. In addition to Broughal, he listed schools which could be affected in south, west and mid-Offaly as Rath, Lumcloon, Ballyboy, Cloghan, Rashina, High Street, Clonmacnoise, Gortnamona, Coolanarney, Kilcormac, Mountbolus, Killeen, Carrig, Oxmantown and Clareen.
Cllr Leahy said that rural Ireland was already being attacked by the closure of garda stations and post offices, and emigration.
He said Broughal was a good example of what could happen if the local school closes.
‘Anything that happens in Broughal happens in the school, if there is a meeting on in the area it is there,' he said.
Continued on page 2.
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