Catholic schools in a number of deprived areas are having to rely on the central funds of the Dublin Archdiocese because of a chronic lack of funds for primary education provided by Government, according to Fr Dan O'Connor, outgoing secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPMSA). At a press conference called by the heads of all the patrons of the primary school sector in Ireland, he said that one inner city school managed by a local parish was faced with a debt of over €70,000, which parents did not have the funds to cover. The school, and other schools in deprived areas, were forced to rely on money from the Archdiocese.
In his last day as Secretary of the CPMSA, Fr O'Connor said this problem also applied to some middle class schools. In one school, he said, parents had been forced to raise over €30,000 to pay for basic costs, and were still faced with a debt of €18,000.
At the press conference, spokespersons for the patron bodies, including Educate Together, the Catholic Church and the Gaelscoileanna, said that primary education could no longer accept “Cinderella status” if Ireland is to be economically competitive in the future.
In a statement, they called on the Government to double the capitation grants for primary schools in the Budget in October.
The consequences of failing to invest in primary education now “will be felt not only only today but for many decades to come”. Primary education, the statement went on, had suffered for generations from under-funding under successive Governments. Schools were being forced, it continued “to depend on an ever increasing burden of fund-raising in order to meet basic costs”.
In an economic environment in which Ireland would have to become a "knowledge or a thinking economy", continued failure to invest properly in the primary sector would be "straightforward political irresponsibility", the statement said.
Catholic schools faced an added problem, Fr O'Connor added, as there was continued growth in the Catholic population, but new school places were not being added quickly enough. He gave the example of the situation in Balbriggan, where controversy arose last year after non-Catholic African students had to be placed in emergency schools because the Catholic school was full. The area serviced by the school in question had the highest number of baptisms in the country last year, he said.
Fr O'Connor ended by observing that he had spent 25 years in the primary education sector, and throughout that time, the Government had never adequately funded primary education. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Disclaimer
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(Source: CIN)