A passionate plea from the headteacher of Middleton Gaelscoil is representative of the feeling among parents and teachers about cuts in education:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=opinion-qqqm=opinion-qqqa=general-qqqid=77922-qqqx=1.asp

'Batt O' Thief' may well come to rue the day that he uttered the words 'teachers must take their
punishment'.

Anyone who feels the cuts have been unfair should assemble on the Grand Parade between 11.30 and 11.45 - the march starts at 12.00. The INTO will have banners for each town so parents and other supporters can march with people from their own locality.

Nice partly-sunny weather here in Cork for it...

toxic avenger wrote:

Nice partly-sunny weather here in Cork for it...

See you under the Clonakilty banner?

A distinction needs to be made between class size and pupil teacher ratio.

In a school of 320 pupils and 15 teachers, the pupil teacher ratio is 21.3

However this 15 teachers includes the principal, remedial teachers, resource teachers. There may only be 11 mainstream teachers.

This means the class size is 320/11 = 29 to 1.

The Minister consistently uses the pupil/teacher ratio to make things look better than they actually are. The real issue is average class size...

Aragon wrote:

toxic avenger wrote:

Nice partly-sunny weather here in Cork for it...

See you under the Clonakilty banner?

Sorry, down with flu, otherwise would have popped down there...

Try pmming spillercork - he might put it on his excellent blog.

Well there was a protest against the Minister Batt O'Keefe in Trinity this afternoon at 4. Needless to say I was there to remind him of the necessity to keep third-level education free of tuition fees.

Between 20,000 and 25,000 reported as being there...

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1122/education.html

The weather was mercifully good and the guards at the march confirmed 25K - the stewards and organisers say it was well over 30K at least - others again insisting that there had been 50K. Just to give you an idea, the tail of the march had not left when the front line arrived back at the Grand Parade starting point having walked about a mile around the South Mall, down by Parnell place - up Merchants Key, into Patrick Street and on back round to the library at Grand Parade. The speeches were very good, rousing cheers all round and a very determined atmosphere. It wasn't carnival like but it was good natured and serious. You could see the determination in people's faces. One poor guy near us was mistaken for Batt O' Keeffe - we had to vouch for him and it turned into a good laugh for a while.

The banners were good too - the kids had fun with the puns

BATTered education
Batt O' Thief
BATTon down the hatches, we're coming to Dublin next
Batty education cuts
BATTing eyelids were mentioned in some way too and loads more I can't remember now.

There were folks there from all over - Kenmare and Tralee, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Newcastlewest in Limerick, Cahir, Tipperary and so on. Most people we spoke to were saying they were going to try their best to get to the 6th Dec protest in Dublin. INTO are hoping for 100K minimum. Shopkeepers and take-away restaurants in Cork had a bumper day - the English market was thronged afterwards.

Aragon wrote:

The weather was mercifully good and the guards at the march confirmed 25K - the stewards and organisers say it was well over 30K at least - others again insisting that there had been 50K. Just to give you an idea, the tail of the march had not left when the front line arrived back at the Grand Parade starting point having walked about a mile around the South Mall, down by Parnell place - up Merchants Key, into Patrick Street and on back round to the library at Grand Parade. The speeches were very good, rousing cheers all round and a very determined atmosphere. It wasn't carnival like but it was good natured and serious. You could see the determination in people's faces. One poor guy near us was mistaken for Batt O' Keeffe - we had to vouch for him and it turned into a good laugh for a while.

The banners were good too - the kids had fun with the puns

BATTered education
Batt O' Thief
BATTon down the hatches, we're coming to Dublin next
Batty education cuts
BATTing eyelids were mentioned in some way too and loads more I can't remember now.

There were folks there from all over - Kenmare and Tralee, Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Newcastlewest in Limerick, Cahir, Tipperary and so on. Most people we spoke to were saying they were going to try their best to get to the 6th Dec protest in Dublin. INTO are hoping for 100K minimum. Shopkeepers and take-away restaurants in Cork had a bumper day - the English market was thronged afterwards.

A protest at the Government and Christmas shopping out of the way, good work by all...