An insider’s guide to education
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Today’s one-day
strike by teachers is very much a pre-emptive strike by the teacher unions. The hope is to head off any further cuts in teachers’ allowances in the forthcoming Budget.
But the options available to Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe – as he seeks some €400 million in education cuts – are narrowing.
The easiest way to achieve savings in the education budget is to cut class size. But this is no longer possible under the terms of the revised Programme for Government, agreed between Fianna Fáil and Green Ministers.
So what about the €250 million teacher Supervision and Substitution (S&S) regime, the so-called “runaway train’’ of education spending. This was introduced in 2003 as a sop to the ASTI.
O’Keeffe has already secured major savings of about €25 million in the S&S regime. More savings are set to flow from tighter rules on uncertified sick leave. This year, the number of leave days taken by teachers has already declined by 28 per cent (primary) and by 38 per cent (second level).
But O’Keeffe wants to go further. For Department bean counters the whole notion of returning to the pre- 2001 era when teachers supervised classes without payment very much appeals.
The Department has not been slow to point out how second-level teachers in Ireland enjoy shorter working hours, better pay and longer holidays than their counterparts in virtually every other OECD state. Against this background, the second-level teacher unions could find it hard to muster public support for any campaign against new supervision arrangements.
But is the Minister prepared to spark a major confrontation with the unions?
- Great excitement atDublin's Institute of Education last week when the spiky haired ones Jedward returned to school.
The twins moved to the Institute – described in the British press as a Dublin “crammer school’’ – from Kings Hospital. They are paying fees totalling over €15,000 for their Leaving Cert course, which was full time until fame and fortune intruded.
Interviewed in the Telegraphand the Daily Mail, the principal of the Institute, Jim D'Arcy, said those who knew the twins before they became famous are struggling to recognise the boisterous but polite boys they remember. "I think their persona on the show must be a bit staged because theyre not arrogant, but it is getting them a lot of publicity."
That’s for sure.
And to think our parents warned us The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had no talent!
- Research funding hasalso been identified as another area ripe for Budget cuts but it is also one fraught with danger.
The Farmleigh summit was a wake-up call, reminding policymakers that a cosy complacency has settled on the education system.
The message from former Intel chief Craig Barrett and others was that Ireland needed to raise its game, especially on science and technology. In this context, a cut in research funding would send precisely the wrong message to the international community about Ireland Inc.
- It may bethat the Government – instead of targeting specific items of education spending – will try and recoup the €400 million through general taxation and/or pension measures.
All of this will involve more pain for the teachers who are manning the pickets today. But for the Government it might be an “easier” way of saving the €400 million.
- Email us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irishtimes.com
