The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has described proposed cuts to the education budget in the North as “unprecedented in their ferocity and highly alarming” and likely to see between 4 and 5,000 teaching jobs being cut. The cuts, proposed by Sinn Fein Minister for Education, Catriona Ruane, amount to a staggering £871 million over the next four years.
The most significant and potentially devastating area to be hit is the Aggregated Schools Budget (ASB), the bulk of which pays the salaries of teachers and frontline staff. For the coming year 2011/12 the cut to the ASB ‘only’ amounts to £26.5 million. This figure is relatively small only because £41 million of capital funding for new school buildings and refurbishments has been transferred to the resource budget. However, in the following year 2012/13, £85 million will be cut, rising to £114 million in year 3 and an incredible £180 million in 2014/15. This final year figure is 58% of total savings for that year. Despite the assurances of the minister that she intends to protect frontline services ‘as far as possible’, these cuts will have major repercussions for the education of our children and will mean thousands of redundancies.
The INTO have described the proposed cuts as “unprecedented in their ferocity and highly alarming” and say that they “can only have catastrophic effects on the job security of thousands of teachers and front line staff.” In a bulletin to members, it says, “INTO is of the view that the savagery and drastic nature of the proposed Savings, particularly to the ASB budget, will lay waste to the Northern Ireland schools system.”
The union estimates that 4-5000 teacher’s jobs will be lost which will “drastically impair the teaching and learning of children in our schools”. The teacher/pupil ratios in our classrooms will significantly increase. The Department has already put aside £250 million to cover redundancies. Of course the losses will not only include teaching staff but also the non-teaching staff and those on temporary contracts are the most vulnerable. These cuts also ensure no prospect of employment for teaching graduates in the foreseeable future.
The Committee for Education’s response to these proposals criticised the lack of detail including “evidence of plans, consultations and timescales”. It points out that the final year proposed cut is nearly one fifth of the schools budget and states that “clearly extensive job cuts would be necessary to deliver the magnitude of the savings proposed by the minister”. Some members questioned “how this sits with the Minister’s key priority in her draft budget of protecting frontline services (schools) as far as possible.” It also pointed out that the “reallocation of capital funding runs the risk of not meeting statutory and Health and Safety requirements” in our schools.
Some other areas that face cuts are Home to School Transport, ICT provision for schools, the expansion of Special Educational Needs provision and school meals.
The Stormont parties continue to insist that they are not responsible for these cuts, that they have no choice because they are being imposed on them by Westminster. Yet, in order to stay in power they are prepared to implement them. They want us to believe that they have reduced the Tory cuts from £4 bn to £2.4 bn and have done everything in their power to protect frontline services. Both the DUP and Sinn Fein recently went to London to argue that the cuts are “too deep and too fast” instead of saying that they are unjust and unnecessary. Our health service is “on the brink of bankruptcy” according to its chief executive John Compton and a full third of the £2.4bn worth of cuts are targeted at our education system. Meanwhile, our politicians continue to argue for a reduction in Corporation tax to increase the profits of global companies instead of demanding the right to increase taxes on the rich. They have raised the regional rates bill while maintaining the cap on it, which is an effective tax break for the most well off.
The nature of the Stormont Assembly makes it easy for parties from one ‘community’ or the other to engage in blame-gaming. The two main parties in the Executive, Sinn Fein and the DUP, along with the Alliance party, agreed this draft budget and should be held to account.
The only way to fight these cuts is through a mass movement both on the streets and in the workplace. Teachers and education staff should unite with students to build a broad opposition movement. We must demand from the parties at Stormont that they refuse to implement any of these cuts. This crisis was made by the rich, and they should pay for it, not us.