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Thursday September 18, 2003 17:17
by Janus
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Jump To Comment: 1A TUI Statement
15th July 2003
Major cuts in the childcare grants to Vocational Education Committees mean that second chance education and training opportunities will be denied to unemployed adults and early school leavers in the forthcoming school year. Equality of access to the education system is being undermined once again for the educationally disadvantaged, and especially for women.
A scheme of childcare grants was introduced in 1998 to enable the participation of individuals on VTOS, Youthreach and Senior Traveller Training programmes, who otherwise would not have been able to participate on these second chance further education programmes due to childcare responsibilities.
The allocation for Childcare grants this year has been drastically cut by 37% by the Department of Education and Science.
These unprecedented cuts have not been announced publicly. Rather Vocational Education Committees have been informed of their budgetary allocation for the forthcoming year, which in reality is 37% less than what they had to manage on last year.
Costs on a year by year basis go up, not down. Inflation has gone up not down. VECs were expecting an increase in funding not a decrease. Decreased funding means decreased provision of childcare support to the most vulnerable and in turn means that early school leavers and unemployed adults will not be able to participate in further education programmes this autumn. The TUI believes that these cuts will compound the inequality already existing in educational provision and demands that they be immediately rescinded.
Annette Dolan
Assistant General Secretary
Funding cuts leave parents in limbo over creche care
Irish Independent, 02/09/2003
Hundreds of disadvantaged parents hoping for a second chance at education still do not know if they will have creche facilities for their children this term.
This follows a 37pc cut in childcare funding which left parents on dedicated early school leaver and second chance education programmes in limbo.
The cuts are expected to hit those on Vocational Education Training schemes hardest. VTOS is primarily aimed at people receiving unemployment or disability payments, and lone parents who seek to return to education.
Students hoping to take part in Youthreach courses and the Senior Travelling Training School also look set to have their weekly €63 childcare grant cut.
This year Vocational Educational Committees (VECs) sought €6m for childcare expenses, but are getting only half that amount from the Department of Education and Science.
The department says its allocation this year of €2.98m compares with an initial allocation of €3.01m for 2002. Due to one-off savings on other programmes in 2002, it proved possible to increase the initial allocation by €1.7m last year.
Some VECs have already decided that childcare centres will close this autumn as a result of the cuts.