I thought I’d ask myself that question.  I’ve been listening to all the experts on the radio over the last week or so and have attended the INTO meetings but I’m not really sure that they are focussing on the right thing.  They all seem to be harping on about class sizes.  Now before I continue, I think that this is a key issue and I agree that class size is an important issue. (more…)

Due to the government’s baffling idea that it would be a good thing to punish schoolchildren in this year’s budget, a protest has been arranged by the INTO at 6:30pm next Wednesday. The protest coincides with a motion that has been proposed by the Labour Party to reverse the cuts made in the budget affecting education.

I will be there.  I am incredibly annoyed by the cuts that were made.  I was expecting to have to pay more tax, possibly take a pay cut or witness the €252 million for ICT to be officially dropped.  I would have accepted any of those.  I know Fianna Fáil got us into this mess but there’s probably no point trying to keep things the same.  I know sacrifices have to be made but it shouldn’t be children who have to suffer.

I’ve had a few days to calm myself down about the budget so I could write coherently about the mess that we’ve been put into.  Everyone is incredibly angry and rightly so; in fact, just looking at the picture on the left fills me with rage.  The man on the left is responsible for the education of every person in this country.  I thought Mary Hanafin was terrible…well she was, but this guy is the most useless politician I’ve ever seen.  He didn’t even have the brains to invent some originailty in his budget cuts.  Instead he decided to look back a few years ago when the government spent even less money on education and thought to himself…”hmmm, I’ll simply copy those ideas.”

So now we’re back to having a maximum of two language support teachers which won’t affect small schools but bigger schools will now have to use their General Allocation hours.  That means will children who were struggling have their hours cut for the greater good?

Now we will feel guilty for being sick.  Being a teacher means being with large (even larger now) groups of children.  Children spend their time diseased and, as teachers, we are very likely to pick one or two of these minor ailments up.  These colds, snuffles, sniffles, man-flus (or whatever you want to call them) last about a day or two if the teacher gets a bit of rest.  Now, in order not to let our children suffer, we will either have to come in and make ourselves sicker or go to a doctor (€60 down the drain) to get a piece of paper and a bit of rest in order for a sub to come in.  Never mind the inconvenioence for principals and unemployed qualified teachers who got some sub days. (more…)