Primary teachers want the introduction of measures to deal with poverty, unemployment and severe disadvantage. Delegates to the INTO's conference yesterday highlighted the case of rural schools in particular, which, they said, were being discriminated against because they did not have disadvantaged status.
Mr Noel Ward, a member of the Tallaght branch, called on the Minister for Education and Science to prioritise socio-economic disadvantage in education.
"As a society, we now have significant wealth, but low wages. Poor child support and imbalances in local development have left many people even more cut off and alienated. Let the Celtic Tiger's claws get to grips with educational disadvantage rather than tear the heart out of whole communities who see prosperity passing them and their children by."
Other delegates called for the criteria for disadvantaged status to be changed so that rural schools in poor areas would not be discriminated against. Mr Oliver Donagher, a delegate from Co Roscommon, cited a recent survey of Co Roscommon schools, where 11 of the county's schools had no teachers' toilet, 25 had no staff room and 21 had no hot water.
"It is ridiculous that neighbouring schools, even in the same parish, can be classed differently", Mr Donagher said. "Declining farm income and the lack of farm employment is leading to severe disadvantage. Support systems based on pupil numbers will never be of benefit where numbers generally are falling.
"There is no psychological service available in Roscommon at primary level. When school principals were asked who they turned to when in need of help, the name at the top of the list was the school nurse."
Mr Ger Kerr, from the Dublin City North branch, said that the gap between the rich and the poor was widening. Teachers could help to redress the imbalance if they had adequate resources, but they were not miracle-workers.
Ms Mary O'Donoghue, from the Wexford branch, asked if primary teachers were "content with a situation where our rural children, by virtue of their numbers, are considered less deserving than their urban counterparts". Under the existing criteria for disadvantaged status, "children in small rural schools must always be denied the concessions which disadvantaged status brings".
She pointed out that the families which these children came from were very often in isolated areas, with none of the support of neighbours or the community projects which existed in urban areas. "Many children are at risk of succumbing to crime and drugs and are likely to leave school early because of lack of information and personnel to intervene in their particular circumstances", she added.
Mr Des Rainey, incoming president of the INTO, said in his inaugural speech that educational funding should not be subjected to the "vagaries of short-term economic fluctuations or to the whims of political ideologies".