10 March 2005 Edition

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Education is a right

BY Justin Moran

Seán Crowe

Seán Crowe

Introducing the debate on Education, Dublin TD Seán Crowe focused on the issues of disadvantage and of the need for investment in special needs education

He acknowledged that recent years have seen additional resources put in place. "They are most welcome, if long overdue and insufficient," he said.

"We acknowledge as well the introduction of the Education for Persons with Disabilities Act, which contained many positive aspects but whose implementation has been crippled by underfunding."

But, he said, children with special needs have been scandalously neglected by the State and it seems set to continue. "Access to psychological assessment, speech and occupational therapists and special needs teachers continues to be denied on the basis of available resources.

"Under the new system of allocating special needs teachers to schools proposed by the previous Minster for Education, the unlamented Noel Dempsey, more than one third of the country's disadvantaged schools are set to lose teachers.

He pointed out that the 26 Counties has the second largest class size in Western Europe, with over 80% of children under nine years of age, 170,000 children, in classes of greater than 20. According to the INTO, to reduce average class sizes to under 20:1 will require approximately 2,500 more teachers.

More than one in five pupils in disadvantaged schools misses more than 20 school days per year. This is substantially higher than the State average in primary schools, which is roughly 10%. In the most disadvantaged schools, nearly one third of all pupils misses more than 20 days per year.

Another statistic that speaks volumes about the education system and highlights what people often call the myth of free education, he said, is that in disadvantaged schools, only approximately 8% of income is from fundraising and voluntary contributions from parents, whereas in non-disadvantaged schools over 30% of income on average is from parents' contributions and fundraising.

"Children across this state continue to be packed into overcrowded and unsafe buildings, drafty pre-fabs and inadequately heated classrooms," said Crowe.

Six-County employment and learning spokesperson Michael Ferguson MLA said that "the right to education is under attack across the Island of Ireland, from New Labour Ministers in the Six Counties and their mirror image in the 26 Counties. Their policy is to make Further and Higher Education a privilege accessible only to those who can afford it.

"So let's be clear about this from the outset. Sinn Féin's policy in relation to Further and Higher Education is that it should be free at the point of delivery. In other words, there should be no tuition fees anywhere on the Island and student support grants should be based on family indexed income.

"In the forthcoming Meath by-election, remember that a vote for Joe Reilly is a vote for the fundamental right to higher education for your son or daughter, not a privilege that will financially penalise you. That means that we will be opposing the recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who seek to replicate the failed English Student Fee System in the 26 Counties."


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Ireland