The matter I have raised relates to two schools in my constituency — Plás Mhuire, or St. Mary's Place, Dorset Street, and the Central Model School, Marlborough Street, which is in the grounds of the Department of Education and Science and of which the Minister is the patron.
This year each school has lost a teacher in spite of both schools having increased numbers. Numerous meetings have taken place between staff and parents, there have been protests outside the Department of Education and Science and the Taoiseach has been contacted. These people are dissatisfied that such a situation should arise.
Both schools were included in the Breaking the Cycle programme two years ago and they received additional staffing at that time. That scheme was introduced on a five year pilot basis and it was intended then that the scheme would be evaluated after that period. Now, midway through the scheme, it seems that the Minister is making it impossible for it to operate effectively.
Even though Breaking the Cycle was introduced largely in the junior section of the schools, it continued into the first two years of the senior section. Nevertheless, it had implications for every part of the schools and it was intended that the pupil-teacher ratio would be the same for the five year period, irrespective of numbers. There was to be a maximum pupil-teacher ratio of 15 which could go as low as the case might be. The advantages gained are now about to be lost.
In the Central Model School one class has 26 pupils, a very difficult class to cope with in the circumstances. There is a full class of ten pupils with special needs as well. These are schools in areas which are very disadvantaged. Both areas have high school drop out rates, enormous levels of unemployment, drug problems and limited infrastructure in housing, community facilities and employment. The Minister should not have taken the sword to these schools and deprived them of their teachers. If anything, he should have used the benefits of the present economic prosperity and given additional teachers to the schools.
The Minister will say these schools already have preferential staffing arrangements. There is no such thing as a preferential staffing arrangement in schools with such a multitude of problems. They have well chronicled results in terms of poor educational attainment, poor access to third level education, a huge drop-out rate and a high level of unemployment. The pupil-teacher ratio in such schools can never be improved sufficiently. The staff and the available resources are being fully used but the schools labour under a huge disadvantage.
Authority has recently been given for the building of a north inner city community college which will be situated across from the Central Model School in Marlborough Street. The project is being planned in a holistic fashion as part of an integrated area development scheme. The local authority is helping in the erection of a full-scale international size sports hall which will be open to the community as well as to the pupils. It is hoped that pre-school, primary and secondary education will be integrated in a major campus which will include the third level Dublin Institute of Technology college in Cathal Brugha Street. If we lose out at primary level this plan will be undermined. We hope to demonstrate to parents that if children are encouraged to make progress in primary school they can be guaranteed the same third level education and employment as young people in other areas. The two primary schools in question will feed into this integrated system which is being planned by the local authority and the education authorities. The Minister is aware of this plan so it is disappointing that two of the feeder primary schools involved are to lose teachers. This makes it more difficult to provide the base level of education which would assist children to progress through the school system and break the cycle of unemployment and disadvantage.
This is the time to be proactive and to use the extra money which is now available to assist the lowest tier of education and provide the maximum benefit for all.
