Donegal Protest Against Education Cuts 29/11/08
INTO PRESS RELEASE: Statement by Irish National Teachers' Organisation, Six to Seven Thousand Protest against Education Cuts
Donegal 29th November 2008
More than six thousand turn out against education cuts
More than six thousand teachers, parents and members of boards of management took to the streets of Donegal Town today (Saturday 29th November) to protest against the education cutbacks in last month’s budget. The protest, organised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, drew protesters mainly from Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo. It was supported by parents, management bodies and principals at both primary and second level and by the second level teaching unions, the ASTI and TUI.
The march was the fourth of five protests throughout the country to highlight the cutbacks in education. Previous protests were held in Galway, Tullamore and Cork. A national protest march is planned for Dublin next weekend.
The protesters assembled at the hospital on the Letterkenny Road and moved off at 2pm to the Diamond in Donegal Town for a rally.
Speaking to the crowd, Declan Kelleher, President of the INTO, said the Minister for Education and Science Batt O'Keeffe had reached a new low accusing teachers of scaremongering about the effects of the education cuts.
He said some schools could see class sizes increase from 27 this year to 36 next year as a result of the cutbacks. “That will cause serious damage to the education of those young children next year,” he said. “That’s not scaremongering but reality.” He said it was the duty of the education alliance between school management, parents and teachers to defend the rights of children to a decent education.”
John Carr, General Secretary of the INTO, told protesters that the government decision to bail out bankers and big business at the expense of children was wrong. He said the greed and recklessness of bankers and developers had landed the country in the current economic mess. “They must not escape scot free while children are being forced by government to bail them out.”
“I believe I speak for all teachers, parents, management and most citizens when I say no politician should ask children to pay the price for the economic difficulties that they had neither hand, act nor part in making,” said Carr.
He strongly criticized some Fianna Fail politicians for claiming that the protests are about teachers, not children. “These protests are about children in the most overcrowded classes in Europe,” said Carr. “They are about children with no English who from next year on will have no English teacher. They are about children who won’t have a teacher next January because government will not pay a substitute. The protests are about poor children who won’t have books next year, about special needs children who won’t have resources, about children who won’t have computers yet they are told they have been born into a knowledge economy, about children in rundown, dilapidated schools.”
Mr Carr also rejected Fianna Fail claims that government is only raising class sizes to 2007 levels. “Has government forgotten the anger and opposition of parents to class sizes last year in Letterkenny where parents in their hundreds turned out to demand smaller classes? Has government forgotten the anger and opposition of parents in Donegal Town to class sizes last year where parents in their hundreds turned out to demand smaller classes? And most of all, have government forgotten the pre-election promises to reduce class sizes year on year?”
He said this was a defining moment for Irish society. “No government must be allowed to get away with forcing young children to pay for the recklessness and greed of big bankers and wealthy developers. Social solidarity must be seen as a force to be reckoned with. Let government know that you abhor what they are doing and that unless the budgetary attacks on education are reversed they will lose support. We will never condone Fianna Fail’s attack on education.”
Ends.