School Completion Programme Cuts Another Hammer Blow – Crowe<\/p>\n
Local Sinn F\u00e9in representative Se\u00e1n Crowe TD\u00a0\u00a0 has said government cuts to the School Completion Programme (SCP) over the past three years are acting as a hammer blow with its impact on some of the countries most vulnerable children.<\/p>\n
Crowe said\u00a0 that the scale of cuts in the programme\u2019s funding will inevitably impact on 470 primary and 224 post-primary schools as it tries to implement educational interventions for approximately 36,000 students.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said;<\/p>\n
“The\u00a0 cuts in the School Completion Programme are acting as a hammer blow to the countries most vulnerable children and will create crevices in the system where\u00a0 vulnerable children will fall through<\/p>\n
“The school completion programme aims to retain young people in the formal education system to\u00a0 completion of senior cycle and generally to improve school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0 latest\u00a0 6.5% reduction announced in this year\u2019s budget, highlights a policy drift coming from the government that is prepared to allow the most vulnerable sections of Irish society\u00a0 shoulder unfairly the heavier elements of austerity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school completion programme has played a vital role in ensuring and supporting\u00a0 students, regardless of their individual circumstances or family background, and gives them the opportunity to complete his or her schooling to Leaving Certificate level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose involved in the programme work in some of the\u00a0 most disadvantaged communities and it has become a vital and an integral part of the school system. The wealth experience that it has gained in building relationships and working with students, families, and outside agencies has been\u00a0 invaluable, particularly at a time of rising unemployment and increased levels of disadvantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0 programmes provides a number of supports including provision for breakfast, lunch and after dinner clubs which help ensure children receive an adequate meal during their time at school and\u00a0 greatly\u00a0 enhances a child’s capacity to study and learn.<\/p>\n
“The majority of schools supported by the school completion programme receive this assistance as part of the school support programme under the DEIS initiative<\/p>\n
\u201cAdded to this is the academic supports offered to students and the programme figures show that it has a proven track record in helping to improve school attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my own constituency of Dublin South West these school completion project benefits hundreds of students.<\/p>\n
\u201c The cuts actually harm the education system, do not add up and should be\u00a0 reversed.<\/p>\n
“The cuts greatly impact on the education of children from low income backgrounds and they should be eradicated as part of the comprehensive review of expenditure due to take place in 2014.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
School Completion Programme Cuts Another Hammer Blow – Crowe Local Sinn F\u00e9in representative Se\u00e1n Crowe TD\u00a0\u00a0 has said government cuts to the School Completion Programme (SCP) over the past three years are acting as a hammer blow with its impact on some of the countries most vulnerable children. Crowe said\u00a0 that the scale of cuts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}