Delegates wary of minister’s vow on closures
April 3, 2013
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn failed to convince teachers there will not be further pay cuts or small rural school closures.
He told the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation annual congress in Cork that a report he intends to bring to Cabinet says that a four-teacher school is the optimum, minimum size for smaller schools.
But while the value-for-money review by his department says it would make teaching and learning more manageable, as no teacher would have more than two class groups, Mr Quinn insisted the report does not mean there will be forced closures of schools with one, two, or three teachers.
“There is, and will continue to be, a need for small schools to exist in rural and isolated communities,” Mr Quinn told delegates. “Rather [than forced closures], this national policy would mean that over time any reconfiguration of schools would be guided by that optimum minimum size.”
Mr Quinn later told reporters that the value-for-money review, commissioned by the previous government, takes account of the additional costs amalgamations would add to budgets for school building and transport. However, his words offered no reassurance to delegates who spoke on a motion seeking an improved campaign to protect small schools.
The policy is seen as a way to force them to decide on amalgamations, instead of having it decided by the minister or his department.
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