Council Education Committee Looks Over School Survey

The Education Committee Chairman, Councillor Carmel O’Boyle said, “The survey highlights the difficulties our primary schools are encountering whilst trying to provide quality education to our children. [caption id="attachment_23938" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Newcastle SDLP Councillor Carmel O'Boyle."][/caption] “Teaching in an ever changing environment is difficult enough without having to worry about the latest new initiatives and budget and staff cuts being introduced. It is about time we listened to our teachers and parents regarding the ever increasing burden being placed on our schools. I know we are in difficult economic times but this makes it all the more important to invest in our young people and for the issues identified in our survey to be addressed.” Councillor O’Boyle added, “It is the 21^st century and our children deserve a modern, efficient education system which supports teachers in their role of developing our young children who in the future we will rely on for our prosperity. At the very time our teachers need help from their local representatives to highlight issues in their schools, Education Minister John O’Dowd is standing by the decision to keep commissioners in post as unelected representatives of our schools in the SEELB area. “The sooner the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) is established, the better it will be for democracy, but it will be at least 18 months before there is movement on this. In the meantime, numerous schools will face closure, teachers and other school staff will lose their jobs, school budgets will be impossible to manage and class sizes will increase. Which all adds up to Stormont administration’s gross failure of duty to our children.”]]>