8 September 2005 Edition

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In Brief - Education

Sinn Féin protest against education cuts

Sinn Féin protest against education cuts

Education cuts challenged

British Government plans to cut the Six Counties education budget by up to £170 million are an attack on schoolchildren, says Sinn Féin's spokesperson on education, West Belfast MLA Michael Ferguson.

Slamming the British Government's decision to slash the education budget, Ferguson said: "It is crucial that we challenge the British Government's erosion of our education system."

According to Ferguson, the cuts will effect school transport, disruption to special needs provision, poor school dinners, no school maintenance programmes and the loss of teaching and non-teaching staff.

"These cuts are an attack on the very foundation of our system of education", he said.

Meanwhile, a Sinn Féin delegation including Michael Ferguson, the chairs of Moyle and Magherafelt Councils, Oliver McMullan and Seán Kerr; Sue Ramsey, the party's Children's Rights spokesperson and Tierna Cunningham, the party's representative on the Education and Library Boards Youth Services committee, met with the North's Children's Commissioner Nigel Williams to discuss the education cuts.

Protest

A Sinn Féin protest against Education underfunding will be held this Saturday in Belfast at 9am outside the Holiday Inn Hotel on Ormeau Avenue, where British Minister Angela Smith will be addressing the NILGA National Women's Conference.


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Ireland