Picture: Don Moloney / Press 22
by Kathy Masterson
MOYROSS parish priest Fr Tony O’Riordan is calling on parishes and churches across the country to sell their unused gold objects so the local Corpus Christi primary school can pay an additional teacher’s salary.
Fr O’Riordan says the parish has been forced to employ a teacher privately because the Department of Education has withdrawn funding for a teaching position since September.
“This leaves us with the prospect of merging two junior infant classes so we will now have a class of 32 junior infants, many of whom have arrived to school some way behind their peers in other schools around the country,” explained Fr O’Riordan.
He added that a pupil-teacher ratio of 1:32 is 50 per cent higher than the Department of Education’s recommended ratio for schools in the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) scheme.
“How could that lead to anything other that poorer educational outcomes for these children?
“I know that many families have been forced to sell gold and jewellery in recent years just to make ends meet and I know that the Church family has many gold objects gathering dust, so I hope that those with charge of these goods might listen to this appeal and help us meet the needs of these disadvantaged children.
“The annual salary for a primary school teacher is around €30,000. If we can raise €20,000 in this appeal, we can keep an appropriate teacher/pupil ratio in place and it will allow us to continue to lobby the Department for the resources to get the job done.”
The school has so far secured the teacher’s salary for one month.
A Department of Education spokesperson explained that a teaching post that had been provisionally awarded to Corpus Christi on the basis that its enrolment figure for September 2014 would be at least 227 but this was redeployed because the final figure was 12 pupils less than the required number.
An independent appeals board upheld the decision when Corpus Christi lodged an appeal.
The spokesperson concluded: “If, over the coming months, it can be established that additional children will be enrolled in Corpus Christi, the Department will review staffing levels.”
Fr O’Riordan says that the school principal and board of management “cannot easily stand over such a detrimental move knowing how negatively it will impact on these childrens’ futures and education”.
“We will not let these children suffer education disadvantage if we can help it, and so we are appealing for help – we are asking that churches disposes of luxury goods to help us pay for an essential good.”
