There is still a need for small schools in rural communities, says minister
April 3, 2013
EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn has ruled out closing 1,000 small schools.
Mr Quinn insisted that one, two and three-teacher schools will continue to form a vital part of Ireland’s primary education infrastructure, despite a new report that says a minimum of four teachers and 80 students is the future optimum level.
His comments came as he received an angry ‘red card’ protest at the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) annual conference in Cork.
More than 600 of the 800 delegates held special red cards aloft as Mr Quinn delivered his speech to signal their anger at swingeing cutbacks to teacher pay and conditions.
Mr Quinn, who yesterday celebrated his 67th birthday, had to pause three times during his address amid loud jeers and catcalls from the floor. One of the loudest roars followed his reference to teachers as “comrades in education”.
Teachers chanted “stop the cuts” and “shame” before president Anne Fay appealed for quiet to allow him to conclude his address. Mr Quinn insisted there was no closure threat to small and rural Irish primary schools.
INTO has repeatedly demanded the full publication of the Value For Money (VFM) report which was commissioned in 2011. The union also warned that it would not tolerate any threat of closure or forced amalgamation to small rural schools. Mr Quinn said no such threat exists.
“The (report) does contain a recommendation that we establish a national policy that recognised a four-teacher school as the optimum minimum size.
“This would ensure that multi-grade teaching would typically be limited to two grades at most, making teaching and learning more manageable for all. This does not mean that we will be forcibly closing down every one, two and threeteacher school,” Mr Quinn said.
“There is and will continue to be a need for small schools to exist in rural and isolated communities. Rather, this national policy will mean that, over time, any reconfiguration of schools would be guided by that optimum minimum size,” he added.
The Government is now only building new premises for eight teacher schools.
INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan warned that direct funding to Irish primary schools has been axed by 12pc since 2009. She also rejected the Government’s €11 per child school book subsidy as “a joke”.
“Teachers are looking at a system that is crashing about them, devastated by the wrecking ball of austerity,” she added.
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