Are schoolchildren being squeezed out of Dublin's college of music? Parents believe that's the motive behind the latest cuts. Alison Healy reports.
Small children toting violin and flute cases around Dublin city centre have been a familiar sight since the College of Music began providing part-time musical tuition "at moderate charges" in 1890. The college was first based at William Street but soon moved to Chatham Row and then expanded into Adelaide Road before further recent expansion to Rathmines. The next move for the younger, part-time students could be into oblivion, parents say.
They claim the school, now known as the Conservatory of Music and Drama, is facing "death by a thousand cuts". "They are going to reduce the numbers to such an extent that there won't be a critical mass to keep it viable," says April Cronin of the Parents for Music campaign.
The implications of the cuts are filtering down on a daily basis. Part-time teachers have been told their hours will be reduced, some by up to 50 per cent, from September. Fees will be increased and students will have to re-audition every year for their places.
Parents have accused the Dublin Institute of Technology, which took over the college 10 years ago, of getting rid of primary and post-primary students because it wants to become a university. The college rejects this but says it's not sensible that all such part-time music instruction for children be in one institution.
"University status is a very different issue," a DIT spokeswoman says. "This is all down to financial constraints. All third-level institutions are facing them. Music courses are not being singled out."
More than 200 hours of part-time music tuition will be lost, which would result in the shedding of about 400 part-time students out of 1,400. Fee increases of up to 25 per cent are still being considered, along with shorter classes, but the college's governing body has asked the president, Dr Brendan Goldsmith, to take another look at the implications of the increases.
For example, a weekly half-hour, pre-instrumental musicianship class for five- to six-year-olds would cost €440 a year under the new charges. Ironically, for a college set up to remove elitism from music, the rises would make some classes more expensive than private tuition.
The next few weeks are crucial for the survival of the conservatory, says lecturer and TUI representative Ite O'Donovan. Summer holidays are looming and the cuts will be in place when the reduced staff and student population returns in September.
DIT's new president, Prof Brian Norton, takes over in September. He may be reluctant to overturn cost-saving measures in a climate of financial constraint.However, he could find himself with a strike on his hands, as the music tutors and the Teachers' Union of Ireland have warned they will take industrial action if the cuts are implemented.
"The Minister for Education [Mr Dempsey\] can act and must act on this matter," O'Donovan says. Dempsey has the power to modify DIT's annual programmes and budgets, under the 1992 DIT Act. However, he is keeping his head down on this issue. Queries to his department always result in the standard answer that implementation of DIT's programmes and budgets are a matter for the governing body and management.
Parents for Music has been seeking a meeting with the Minister since the problems first emerged earlier this year, but with no success. Cronin says the Education Minister must ring-fence the budgetary allocation for music education for part-time students, before the money goes elsewhere.
The conservatory was originally run by the City of Dublin VEC (CDVEC) and parents say that if DIT has no interest in running it, then it should hand it back "intact" to a body such as the VEC.
CDVEC chief executive Liam Arundel says his organisation is committed to the provision of city-wide music education. He is promoting the concept of about six satellite centres around the city, providing music tuition on an affordable basis, in addition to the DIT service. Should DIT withdraw from part-time music tuition, then the satellite services would be even more necessary.
Asked about this proposal, a spokesman for Dempsey said the Minister had offered to convene a meeting between DIT, CDVEC and his officials to discuss music education policy.
The lack of a director of the conservatory is not helping the parents' campaign. Its former head, Eibhlis Farrell, has taken her case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal and a hearing is soon expected. The acting head of the conservatory, Victor Merriman, left last year and the college has just advertised the position for the third time. Applications closed on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, down the road in Rathmines, another DIT music course is in crisis. Students on the master's programme in music technology have been without a course head since last November. They claim their course is being "run into the ground" since their director, Dr Paul McGettrick, left three weeks after the one-year course began.