FEATURE ON EDUCATION

United action to stop the cuts

THE GOVERNMENT are determined to press ahead with their draconian cuts in education. These cuts will impact on every parent and every child in our schools as well as on those who work in education. Children with special needs are likely to be particularly affected as these cuts bite.

As far as the government are concerned, the Boards only exist to do their bidding. When in July, under union and community pressure, the South Eastern Board failed to implement cuts, they were summarily dismissed and replaced with four Commissioners. These Commissioners are now busy doing their masters' bidding and cutting back on services.

Brian Booth and Padraig Mulholland of the NIPSA branch in the South Eastern Board outline here some of the cuts that are taking place.

At the moment there are numerous local campaigns resisting cuts and closures. There is a need to bring these together across Northern Ireland in a massive trade union and community campaign to say “NO” to education cuts.

The "faceless four" now attacking education services in the South Eastern area should be removed. But appointed Boards made up of similar people are not a real alternative. Education - like other public services - should be run by bodies that are elected and accountable, not appointed by the government of the day. A majority of seats on these bodies should go to genuine representatives of working class communities and of those who work in education.

Not safe in their hands

Who are these faceless hatchet men and women who run the South Eastern Board? The four Commissioners are:

Douglas Osler - Chairman of the Socttish Conservative Party Policy Advisory Group

Joan Christie (OBE) - Company director

Lawson McDonald - Accountant and former IBD Executive

Pat Carvill - Ex civil service mandarin (permanent secretary) and Advisory Council member of Partnership UK which delivers PPP/PFI "solutions" to the public sector

Commissioners wield the axe

THE NEWLY appointed Commissioners have wasted no time in getting down to the business of cutting services.

On 8 September they decided to close two schools; Lisnasharragh HS in East Belfast and Groomsport PS. Lisnasharragh is due to close in August 2008 and Groomsport in August 2007.

Initially the Commissioners hoped to shut another two schools as well, Hilden IPS in Lisburn and Conlig PS, but following a campaign of opposition both received a temporary reprieve.

Commissioner chairman, Douglas Osler, has also served notice that another four schools are in the firing line; Charley Memorial PS, Drumbo PS, Hillhall PS and Lambeg PS, are facing the threat of closure in the near future. Lisnasharragh HS and Groomsport PS parents have campaigned to keep their schools open but they have faced a number of problems.

The potential closure was announced just before the school closed for the summer, making it more difficult to mobilise against it. Some parents, fearful that the school would be deliberately run down, started to seek alternative schools for their children. Meanwhile, the shameful decision by local politicians to initially allow the closure proposal to go through made it easier for the Commissioners to act.

These difficulties can be overcome. Lisnasharragh parents are determined to maintain their campaign. The start of the new school year gives them an opportunity to step it up. A militant campaign that links up with other anti-education cuts groups, the trade unions and local communities can force the government to retreat.

Parents robbed on...
...special needs meals

BECAUSE OF the penny pinching attitude of the Department of Education and the Boards many parents of special needs children have been forced to pay unnecessarily for their child's school meals.

Up to June of this year, children with special dietary requirements were only entitled to a free meal if they attended a special school. Parents whose children attended mainstream schools were forced to pay.

This discriminatory practice of giving to one child and not another depending of the type of school they attend has now been done away with.

However nothing has been done to compensate parents for the money they have been unfairly forced to pay up to now.

Equality legislation has a six year claw-back so it would be only fair if parents were recompensed for the time their child should have had free meals in the last six years.

A primary child’s meal costs £2.00. A post-primary child’s meal costs £2.20. Children attend school up to 190 days per year. Many parents should be entitled to a considerable amount in compensation.

If your child has been done out of this, you should write to Brian Hill, Department of Education, Rathgael House, 43 Balloo Road, Bangor, BT19 9PR.

...transport costs

THE DEPARTMENT of Education are telling Education Boards to hold back on entitlements to children who are transported to school.

Parents or guardians, who transport their children to and from school, get the equivalent of the cost of a bus pass, £560 per year, regardless of how many children they take.

Parents who travel more than ten miles are entitled to £840 and those who travel over 15 miles should get £1,120.

But the Boards are being told to offer parents only £560. Parents should resist this attempt to introduce cuts by stealth and demand the rate they are entitled to get.