Madam, – We are teachers currently employed at different Voluntary Protestant Secondary Schools across the country. There are 21 of these schools, each having made its own distinct contribution to Irish education over many years.
Many of our schools are the result of amalgamations that took place in the 1960s when Irish education underwent a significant re-organisation and free education was introduced to the country. At that time the Protestant minority, a scattered community across the Republic, was reassured that it would be treated “equitably” by the then minister, Donogh O’Malley. For more than 40 years our schools have been funded in the same way as our Catholic neighbours.
That has now changed. In the last budget all grants for posts such as caretakers and secretaries were abolished for our schools. Worse, by raising the pupil-teacher ratio, the level of teacher provision for our schools was reduced further than in the majority of schools around the country. The State now pays for fewer teachers in Protestant schools, proportionately, than in Catholic schools.
For those of us who are teachers in these schools, alarm-bells are ringing. We have already seen the redundancies of last summer. Does the current Minister, his advisers, or this Government understand that minorities deserve support in a country that calls itself a Republic? Do they understand that some of our schools may close? We are not looking for special treatment: we simply want the pupil-teacher ratio for our schools to be the same as in the majority of schools. This would re-establish a parity that has always existed. It would reassure a community somewhat shocked by its treatment by the Department of Education and Science. It would also keep the jobs of many of our colleagues who deserve to be treated fairly. – Yours, etc,