Following the Munster Quakers Quarterly Meeting, held at the Quaker Meeting House in Waterford, and following wide-ranging discussion of educational cutbacks, Munster Quakers have appealed to the Minister for Education and Science, and to the Government, to restore parity of esteem for Protestant Voluntary Secondary Schools in the free scheme.
The feeling of the Meeting was that, as the owners of the only Quaker Secondary School in Munster and being responsible for its management, they were ‘appalled’ at what they regard as the ‘grossly unfair treatment’ of their school and others in the same sector.
A spokesperson for the Quakers points out that the changes introduced have increased the pupil/teacher ratio and withdrawn a range of grants from the schools, greatly in excess of the changes made for other schools in the free scheme. That, said the spokesperson, would lead to an even greater financial burden on parents, particularly those in less fortunate circumstances.
“While we fully accept that the Protestant Voluntary Secondary Schools must take their full share of cuts to help with National economic recovery, we do not believe it is acceptable that these schools are now to be singled out and treated differently, and in a manner which could be viewed as discriminatory, relative to all other Voluntary Secondary Schools in the free scheme”, said the spokesperson.
