Speech by Education Spokesperson Brendan Smith on FF motion condemning cuts to rural schools
Published on: 31 January 2012
The motion before the house tonight on behalf of the Fianna Fáil party clearly outlines our concerns in relation to the adverse affects the changes proposed to the staffing schedule for small schools will cause, to many communities, throughout the country.
The protection of small rural schools is a critical issue for Fianna Fáil and we believe budget 2012 unfairly targets rural communities.
The Government’s plans to introduce phased staffing cuts in small schools with under 5 teachers is a cause of very serious concern in many local communities.
During the course of the past decade there was a very substantial increase in the resources provided to small schools both in teacher numbers, teaching support staff and indeed in the physical infrastructure with new or upgraded classrooms and ancillary accommodation. Those decisions were made and that investment was made because we see local primary schools as an irreplaceable part of community life.
In our motion we ask the government to protect the existing network of 1, 2, 3 and 4 teacher schools.
In the nearly 2 months since the budget was announced the cuts being imposed in our schools have rightly become the cause of concern to many school communities. While many government Oireachtas members issued press releases praising the fairness of the budget and how they had protected staffing and schools, the reality quickly emerged that the exact opposite was the truth. Core staffing was not left intact and pupils, schools and communities most in need were singled out for cuts.
The programme for government gave a clear commitment to protect frontline services. By anyone’s definition the classroom teacher is providing a frontline service. Cutting these jobs is as clear a broken promise as pledging to reduce fees and then putting them up.
The previous minister for education and skills commenced a ‘value for money’ review of the provision of small primary schools. As that minister confirmed at the time and many times subsequently the review was commissioned with absolutely no commitment to cutting teachers. The main approach was to find out the best way of supporting the school and i, and others, at that time consistently made the point that small schools should be valued and protected.
The large number of responses to that particular consultation process demonstrates the importance of this network of schools.
Why, were decisions with such impact on small schools, made in advance of the finalisation of that report?
There has been no consultation with management bodies or unions on these staffing changes.
The government must publish whatever impact analysis has been carried out by the department on these far-reaching changes.
Surely all of us in public life should understand the role of small schools in our education system. It is true that we have an unusually high number of primary schools in proportion to our population. This is the result of many factors, the most important of which is the fact that our national schools have always played the role of being a focal point in a local community.
Where other countries took the approach of bussing children long distances in order to meet idealised efficiency standards we have retained the community school link as a core feature. We must retain that link.
Our population patterns and population dispersal is very different to that of most European countries.
In terms of education standards the evidence is that pupil outcomes in smaller schools keep pace with those of schools with much larger enrolments and specialised support services.
In the broader educational context, having schools which are rooted in their communities helps children to better understand the place where they are growing up. Vitally, these schools help maintain the viability of much of rural Ireland.
If you take a community’s school away you are taking away both its heart and its future.
In the decade up to 2005 the population of rural Ireland showed its first increase since the famine. We bucked the trend which was both historic and international. No one from rural Ireland doubts the fact that supporting and investing in smaller rural schools has been central to this. Keeping these schools and upgrading them was not done in the name of administrative efficiency but because the richness and diversity of Irish community life is worth protecting. In the overall context the money involved has been a tiny fraction of the state spending but the impact has been huge, it has been positive, it has been progressive.
47% of the 3,200 primary schools in the state have 5 teachers or fewer so it is evident the huge impact the staffing schedules will have on small rural schools.
Last June the Minister said that in considering any policy change in relation to small schools the department would consider a number of wider dimensions other than simply the cost of running small schools.
Our position has always been that it is about increasing the education return to communities from these schools and not about finding ways of rationalising them. We believe these schools provide value for money.
The minister has referred in this house to small schools mainly having a more favourable pupil/teacher ratio than larger schools. This is not comparing like with like. Teachers in small schools have pupils of different ages and different grades in their classroom.
It is not true to claim that there would be a gradual increase in the pupil/teacher ratio in small schools. These changes represent a dramatic increase. For example a Gaeltacht school will now need 83 pupils instead of 76 pupils in order to qualify for 4 teachers this year.
The new retention figures published by the department are inequitable. A large school with 12 teachers needs another 28 pupils in order to become a 13 teacher school. However, for a 2-teacher school, if it wants to become a 3-teacher school this September, it will need an additional 37 pupils, while a 3-teacher school looking to become a 4-teacher school will need an additional 30 pupils. Why are small schools punished in comparison to larger schools? These new retention figures will, in fact, make it more difficult for the smaller schools to expand.
The advice by the department to small schools – “to consider their future” and – “to assess their options for amalgamation” – is clearly a stark message.
The changes are blunt in nature and the forced cuts are based on numbers alone, without any consideration to the school’s ethos, the geography of a particular area or the impact on the community of removing such a key amenity.
These cuts will have a disproportionate and severe impact on minority faith schools such as church of Ireland schools and also on Gaeltacht schools and gaelscoileanna. This is also completely at odds with the minister’s efforts to widen patronage in our education system through the forum on patronage and pluralism. This is going in the exact opposite direction of what the minister is trying to achieve in the patronage area.
These cuts will have a very serious affect on schools under the patronage of minority faiths. There are 200 protestant primary schools in the state, 174 are church of Ireland, 24 are Presbyterian, 1 Methodist and 2 Quaker. 50 of these schools have less than 30 pupils and 50 are located in Dublin. The remainder are dispersed across the country. Many in rural locations serving rural families. 65% of church of Ireland schools will be directly impacted by the new staffing schedules. This will not be acceptable.
There are also serious issues for gaelscoileanna and schools in the gaeltacht area.
This can’t be just about value for money and achieving savings. Research has shown that children do well in these schools and that the social and emotional development of children in small schools is in fact stronger.
While multi-grade/multi-class teaching has its challenges there are huge learning positives to grouping children of different ages and different grades together. The department of education statistics in 1998/1999 indicate that about 40% of all primary school pupils are taught in multi-class situations.
Even in a one-grade class there is always a considerable range of abilities, maturity and needs. No two children can be considered as being at the same level in all areas. In the multi-class situation this range is simply wider.
Teaching at different class levels to different development levels and keeping all students engaged in meaningful work is a challenge. It requires:
1. A high degree of organisation
2. That the teacher allows pupils to take some responsibility for their own learning
3. A wide range of resources to prevent repetition for children who spend up to 4 years in 1 classroom.
Small schools using a multi-class system can be very effective in meeting the needs of the individual child in his or her school work.
The small school provides a sense of belonging where each individual is valued for his or her unique qualities. In the big schools, unfortunately, a pupil can be easily lost in the crowd.
Multi-class teaching brings together children of different ages and development in a learning environment and this produces a more natural learning situation, for example where older children can help younger ones.
While very few studies have been done in Ireland on the efficacy of small schools the results of the limited number of studies done to date all come to the same conclusions as the international studies.
International research has shown that students taught in a multi-grade and multi-class situations are on a par, academically, with those taught in single-grade classrooms.
Research has shown that there was no discernible difference in academic performance in multi-grade and single-grade pupils. In 2000 ofSted presented “small schools how well are they doing”. This study was based on 4 years of school inspections of every primary school in England coupled with National curriculum test results.
Inspections show that in terms of the overall quality of education that pupils in small schools are not disadvantaged in comparison with those in larger schools because of the size of the school. Small schools are equally capable of providing an effective education and many are among the most effective in the country.
Research also shows that smaller schools have a greater parental involvement.
The minister must provide clarity in regard to the appeals mechanism. I cited at question time already cases of schools which will lose teachers because of the retrospection element and September 30 2011 enrolment criteria. That retrospection element must be removed.
The department must also allow schools to amalgamate learning support/resource teaching hours and not have the farcical situation of people needlessly travelling between schools. Surely we need local autonomy not centralisation of the school roster.
The importance of our small schools must be recognised, the uncertainty that has been created must be removed and I request the Government to deal quickly and rescind these retrograde changes to the staffing schedules.