DEIS and other Education Cuts

It looks that thankfully the proposed cutbacks to DEIS schools may well be reversed, however as of yet there is nothing concrete.  Minister Ruairi Quinn was on Pat Kennys radio show during the week and to me sounded as if he didn’t fully understand the role of DEIS schools and the DEIS schemes.

In the long run schemes like this are to tackle educational disadvantage. Needless to say as part of the schemes there is a lot of onus on school staff, part of that lazy public sector. In primary schools on the DEIS programme the children will get their breakfast, which in many disadvantaged areas is reason enough to send the child to school. No guess as to who feeds the children, those lazy public sector teachers.

As most families can not afford school books, teachers create a curriculum and produce materials so that the children can be taught using handouts and other facilities. In some areas many of the parents would have had drug problems which leads to behavioural difficulties in children. For example ADD and ADHD are far more common in disadvantaged areas than elsewhere.

I could go on, but the idea of these being cut , when there are so many other cuts that would be of less harm  , such as building grants to private schools, is sickening, especially from a Labour Party Minister. The long term impact of cuts to the DEIS schemes would cost far more than any cuts now.

(According to the Sunday Business Post)

“In the fall-out from the controvsery,  Labour TDs privately voiced criticism of the party’s leadership and advisers for not “politically proofing the budget cuts.”

So maybe they’re not Worth it!

Elsewhere though there are plenty of education cuts being done on the sly. You May have read or heard about some of these, except they are not classed as cutbacks.
The Department of Education is withdrawing separate funding for career guidance posts, leaving schools to find the money themselves.
This will lead to dedicated Career Guidance hours coming out of the general teaching hours. Which will mean two things, less teacher hours and less career guidance time. Which in turn means less teachers and less career guidance teachers.
So bigger class sizes and a few more teachers on the Dole.
Its rumoured too of chaplaincys going the same way. Many in these roles are actually Lay people and along with Career Guidance teachers play a vital role within the school. They are very much part of a support structure for pupils that goes well beyond advice on careers and filling out CAO and other forms. They provide counselling services for the mass of problems teenagers face today, be it depression, suicide, sexuality, family issues, bullying and so on.

This month another tidy sum will land in the pockets of unsecured bondholders, next month another bunch of promissory notes will be paid off too. I’m no financial expert but I gather that once these Anglo promissory notes get paid off next month (€3 billion plus) the money will be destroyed. Its fairly sick that all these cutbacks are to pay off money that will be instantly destroyed. Madness…….