Mayo worst hit by teacher cuts

Mayo hit hardest by teacher cutbacks

Mayo to bear over a quarter of the entire country’s teacher cuts

Anton McNulty 

Public representatives in Mayo have not done enough to stand up for rural schools according to a primary school principal after it emerged that eleven schools in the county are set to lose a teacher.
A total of 39 schools in Ireland are to lose a teacher in September and of that figure eleven will come from Mayo schools with seven rural schools in the county now being reduced to one teacher status.
The schools which will now have only one teacher at the start of the new school term are Newtownwhite NS, Ballysokerry, Ballina; Shraheen NS, Foxford; Killocrann NS, Castlehill, Ballina; Valley NS, Achill; Drummin NS, Westport; Cloghans Hill NS, Kilmaine; and SN Beannchair, Carrowmore, Ballina.
Cloonliffin NS, Ballinrobe will be reduced from a four teacher to a three teacher school, while Geesala Central School in Erris, Scoil Naomh Feichin, Attymas, Ballina and Gortjordan NS, Kilmaine will become two teacher schools.
Under the revised staffing figures for 2014/2015, schools with less than 20 pupils will be reduced from a two teacher to a one teacher school, schools with less than 56 will be reduced to two teacher status while four teacher schools will lose a teacher if the enrolment figure falls below 86.
Tom Byrne, the Principal of Partry NS, who has campaigned against the cuts in rural schools says the reduction in teachers is part of a strategy by the recently retired Minister of Education, Ruairí Quinn, to close rural schools and believes that Mayo politicians have failed to defend rural interests. “What is playing out is a strategy Ruairí Quinn introduced which has become very obvious to ensure that rural schools are closed. This is the culmination of that strategy. I heard from a former Minister who told us at a meeting in Galway that Ruairí Quinn is an advocate of centralisation and moving more services away from rural areas to urban areas.
“What he has done will have a serious effect on rural Ireland. If we don’t have a school we don’t have a community. If we want our young people to come back to live here, are they going to come back to an area with no school or one with one teacher. Of course they are not. I have seen the value of rural schools to a child and to a community and you cannot calculate what rural schools bring to a community.
“Unfortunately our politicians in Mayo did not support our rural schools … they seem to adopt a European strategy rather than an Irish strategy. We need a different type of politician to represent the people who realises that Irish principles are extremely important. If our elected representatives are not defending our services then communities must vote for someone else who will,” he said.
The number of cuts to Mayo schools was confirmed last week following a parliamentary question to the former Minister for Education. Mayo Fianna FΡil TD, Dara Calleary, said he was alarmed the figure for Mayo schools was ‘substantially higher’ than other counties. “This is yet another attack by this Government on small schools, and more specifically small schools in Mayo. These are schools with no more than four teachers as it is, and will now be forced to do more with less. This decision will not only create additional stress for the teachers in these schools, it will also have a major impact on the pupils and their quality of education.
“Government TDs in Mayo have done nothing to try and stop this sustained assault on small schools. It’s time these Deputies stood up for their constituents and their children and demand a stop to these cuts,” said Deputy Calleary.
West Mayo INTO secretary, Tony Varley said that nobody wanted to see a school lose a teacher but but felt that the situation was inevitable until the ratio numbers changed. He said the reduction of two teacher to one teacher schools was not good for either the teacher or the pupils “When you have one teacher for all classes in the school that teacher can be looking after eight classes from junior infants to sixth class. While some subjects can be block taught, you have to have an individual maths problem for every class, no matter the size.
Some parents will identify with a school and have no problem while others view it will be better to have their children in a bigger class,” he said. Fine Gael member of Mayo County Council, Cllr Tereasa McGuire is Principal of Drummin NS outside Westport which will become a one teacher school in September.
She said the situation is far from ideal but stressed that she hopes they will have enough students to retain their second teacher next year.
“Next year there is a high indication that we will get our second teacher back on appeal and we are hoping to get isolated school status which might help us hold a teacher. It is very disappointing we will lose a teacher but I will do my best. I will continue to teach in Drummin and there is no question of not having a school in Drummin. As long as one child needs teaching I will teach,” she said.