PROTESTANT SCHOOLS could be forced to close as they struggle to cope with the impact of cutbacks in the October budget, school managers said yesterday
In the budget, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe removed ancillary grants for Protestant schools, covering such expenses as caretaker and secretarial supports.
Protestant schools have also faced an increase in the pupil teacher ratio, now set at 20:1, compared with 19:1 in other second-level schools.
Last night, Eleanor Petrie, parent representative on the Committee on Management for Protestant Secondary Schools, said there was widespread anger across the Protestant community and a “growing feeling this minority community is being discriminated against”.
She said any further deterioration of the pupil teacher ratio would lead to an intolerable financial pressure on many schools and would result in closures, particularly in rural locations.
The October budget fundamentally changed the way the State views and treats minority faith schools.
While the block grant remains in place, all voluntary Protestant schools have been removed from the free education scheme and lost a series of support grants.
There are 26 Protestant second-level schools in the Republic. Five are comprehensive schools.
The remainder are voluntary secondary schools.
Most of these are secondary boarding schools providing Protestant education to a dispersed population.
Ms Petrie said there was a misconception that Protestant fee-charging schools are elite enclaves catering for wealthy families.
The reality, she said, is that Protestant schools provide a secondary education to all families, irrespective of means.
Earlier this year, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin John Neill criticised an “unbelievable lack of understanding” by the Department of Education.
