If You Think Education is Expensive, Try Ignorance

national | education | opinion/analysis Tuesday December 23, 2008 10:02 by Mark C - ASTI (Pers. Caps.)

Open Letter to all TDs asking them to roll back on the Cuts to Education announced inBudget 2008

This is an open letter, sent this morning to all TDs using the form at contact.ie, asking for the cuts to education announced in Budget 2008 to be rolled back on.

Feel free to copy and send it yourself to all or any TDs or modify it to suit your own school/constituency.

If only 10% on indymedia.ie users send it to all TDs (about 2,000 people) that will mean 332,000 emails will be sent (2000 users multiplied by 166 TDs) and it will only take you one minute to copy the letter, fill out the form, and hit SEND. I can't but think it might make some difference.

Dear TDs,

This is an open letter to you all, asking you to do your utmost at this very crucial time to revert the impending cuts to our education system that were announced in Budget 2008.

These cuts will be disastrous for our education system, our communities, our society at large, and, ultimately, our economic system. As ex-President of Harvard University said: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance". If billions can be found to help our ailing banking system (the system that provides the foundation for our economic base), surely money can be found for our education system - the system that will sustain and develop that base into the future.

Below I have listed some points that you might consider at your convenience and report back to me on as soon as you get a chance.

1) Presently we have the second biggest class sizes in Europe. When the cuts take effect, we will have the biggest class sizes in Europe.
2) The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) consistently places Ireland 29th worst out of 30 for spending on education. When the cuts take effect, we will rank 30th out of 30 – i.e. worst.
3) The cuts will mean up to five teachers gone from Mercy College, Woodford (as deputies Ulick Burke, TD and Noel Treacy, TD have brought to your attention in a Dáil debate); in perspective, this means up to 1/5 of the school's teaching staff.
4) This figure comes from:
a. Loss of Special Needs post
b. Loss of ex-quota post (woodwork)
c. Loss of Home-School-Community Liason Officer
d. Drop in student numbers
5) The school will lose all funding for Transtion Year.
6) The school will lose all funding for Leaving Cert. Applied.
7) The school will lose funding for its special needs department.
a. We are concerned that students may opt to not take Transition Year if there is no funding; with a lack of funding it will be difficult to carry on some of the modules that the Transition Year enjoys.
b. The same may be true of Leaving Cert. Applied.
8) The government is committed to setting up Ireland as a knowledge-based economy (as we can no longer compete with the developing economies of the East in terms of labour and production costs).
9) It will be difficult in the extreme to develop a knowledge-based economy if the education cuts come in to effect. You do not build such an economy by taking away resouces and frontline staff.
10) The Minister for Finance announced in his Budget 2008 that the government were committed to helping the most vulnerable in our society. There is a huge gulf between what WE consider to be vulnerable people (the old, the infirm, the young) and what the government consider to be vulnerable people (banks, big businesses, and those who got us in the mess we find ourselves in).

I trust you will give this your urgent attention and I wish you all a very happy Christmas.

Regards,
Mark C
http://www.contact.ie