SCHOOL PRINCIPALS have been told they should pool resources to allow pupils travel to neighbouring schools to take Junior and Leaving Cert subjects unavailable in their own school.
Department of Education secretary general Brigid McManus told principals at a conference yesterday that schools should ensure the widest range of subject choice was available in any local area.
She expressed surprise that no such joint application had been received “in a year where schools are publicly identifying difficulties over teacher allocations”.
“I would encourage you to think about this for the future and the value it may have in ensuring that certain subjects are maintained,” she said.
Ms McManus’s call for a pooling of resources will be welcomed by parents amid concerns that students have been forced to abandon some subjects.
Last month, a survey by the secondary teachers union, the ASTI, revealed how dozens of second-level schools have been forced to drop science subjects and cut back on higher-level maths because of the cuts in teacher numbers.
Addressing the annual conference of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) in Galway, Ms McManus outlined the fiscal crisis facing the exchequer.
Despite the cutbacks in teaching posts, she stressed the department could give priority to cases in which two or more schools came together and made a joint request to retain a teacher.
As a proud civil servant for over 30 years, she was saddened, she said, by the “degree of hostility and criticism that is current about the public sector and the work of public servants”.
In the education sector, she said, the cost of sustaining services is compounded by the rising number of pupils at primary and now increasingly at post-primary, where “we need more resources just to stand still in terms of service levels”.
On school performance she said there was an increasing awareness that academic success and feeder school league-table position are not necessarily the measure of a great school. She urged schools, however, to give more information to parents.
“This is not about creating league tables. But we must look at what improvements should be made in relation to the range of information schools provide to parents about the operation and performance of the school.”
She also hinted at reform at second level, where concerns had been raised about a system driven by rote learning and exam pressures and higher education entry requirements rather than the promotion of real understanding and skills.
“There’s no easy solution to these issues and they are difficult to address when we are struggling in the current fiscal situation. But we must find a way of progressing these fundamental issues even in difficult times.”
In his address, NAPD president Ciarán McCormack said the ban on the filling of promotion positions has had a disproportionate effect on schools compared to other areas of the public service.
