Statement from TUI President Don Ryan:

“The Department’s comments offer precious little clarification on what is a hugely serious issue with the new school year just weeks away.

TUI understands that the Department of Education and Science already has the figures for the special needs allocation for schools and it is difficult to understand why these figures have not been included in the figures published yesterday.

This, however, continues the pattern of the Department’s reluctance to publish these figures in recent years despite repeated requests. 

We resent being labelled alarmist and ask once again that the Department quantifies the number of teachers that they estimate will be taken out of the system in the coming school year. It is not good enough to state that they will not know until late in the year. Every pupil has to be catered for from the first day of term.

The feedback we are receiving from principals around the country indicates that timetabling duties are already causing extensive problems due to uncertainty about teacher quotas next year.

The Minister said on several occasions last year that education cutbacks would result in 200 job losses in the second level system. Even allowing for an increase in special needs and language support allocations in the coming weeks, the statistics set out on the Department’s own website are completely at odds with this and require an urgent and thorough clarification.”