Education Unions criticise saving plans outlined by the Education Authority as ‘ransom’.
Speaking after an emergency meeting of the NIC-ICTU Education Group of 10 trade unions representing workers across the Education sector, ETUG chair Marie O’Shea criticised the saving plans outlined by the Education Authority as
a ransom demand to be paid by parents of school children, plus the teaching and support staff striving to deliver quality education for all pupils
Already, our education system is underfunded and facing needless pressures from the budget crisis afflicting the NI Executive. Teachers are already in dispute over workload and support staff are without a pay rise to which they are legally entitled. The proposals from EA today are adding salt to an open sore and are simply intolerable and undeliverable.
ETUG vice-Chair Susan Neill added
These include increasing the cost of School Meals by 30 pence per meal and an additional 15% on cafeteria costs, for families who rely on them to ensure their children are fed, healthy and ready to learn. At a time when substantial public funds continue to be committed elsewhere, it is indefensible that some of the lowest-income families are being asked to shoulder the burden of education cuts. Rather than moving towards the long call for a model of Universal Free School meals for children in Northern Ireland, similar to the provision in England, Scotland and Wales, we are moving towards a system that charges primary pupils £3.40 per day, placing additional financial pressure on those least able to afford it.
The shift to parental payments for new taxi provision is unconscionable and targets already vulnerable children with Special Needs. Parents may have to pay for transport upfront and wait 6–7 weeks for reimbursement, which many cannot afford. Reducing access to the music service and cutting the amount a school can spend on goods and services is again, targeting the least well-off families. These would have been considered if EA had carried out an Equality Impact Assessment.
Marie O’Shea concluded, pointing out that
DENI is spending heavily on glossy conferences (e.g., at the La Mon hotel only yesterday) to promote TransformED, an expensive luxury in the name of efficiency in these times. TransformED needs to be suspended rather than accelerated. Why can’t ring-fenced TransformEd funds be redirected to frontline children's services? Especially when we consider the proposal to outsource the cost of providing the School Milk Subsidy Scheme to DAERA, a department which is itself facing cost pressures from the budget impasse between the NI Executive and the NIO.
Workers in schools delivering learning and support for our children cannot be silent. With the help of the parents of the children in our daily care and the voices of our elected MLAs in Stormont, we can and must reverse these egregious threats to our schools and those who attend them.
