On the eve of the day of the Christmas holidays, we put together a report highlighting the farce that was the lottery system allocation of funding for a STEM grant. Principals responded in their droves and felt, quite rightly, very hard done by for giving the time for something that should just be allocated to schools as a matter of course.
Just to make clear what is being offered here in Minister Byrne’s offering: it is the chance for 20 schools in the whole country to be granted funding and we are being asked to pitch for it. Have you time to go pitching for funding that you should be getting as a matter of course?
The National Principals’ Forum would love for all schools to stand together in unity by not engaging in this process. Instead, let us make it clear to the Department of Education, that this is no way to treat our schools by sending this message directly to them by email.
In order to do so, we are asking you to email: PhysicalActivity@education.gov.ie with the subject line:
NO MORE GAMES. FUND PRIMARY SCHOOLS PROPERLY.
You are welcome to send your own thoughts or copy/paste the following text:
Dear Minister Byrne,
Our school will not be engaging in the P.E. Pilot Scheme. We feel strongly that pitting schools against each other in a lottery scheme for essential funding is not appropriate and flies in the face of collegiality.
Physical Education is already a well-established subject in the curriculum and there has been no direct funding for it since 2010. Rather than coming up with schemes that benefit the very few, the Department of Education should fund every school adequately.
This email will directly go to the Department. Previous email campaigns have proved very effective and should only take you a minute to do.
The last time the Department of Education gave a grant for PE equipment to schools was in 2010 (Circular 68/2010) and was worth at least €1,000 per school. This current fund, equates to approximately €52 per school.
By sending this email with this subject line and short statement, principals will be putting on record how we will not accept these lotteries, when all schools should be funded equitably.
Dear Minister Byrne,
Our school will not be engaging in the P.E. Pilot Scheme. We feel strongly that pitting schools against each other in a lottery scheme for essential funding is not appropriate and flies in the face of collegiality.
Physical Education is already a well-established subject in the curriculum and there has been no direct funding for it since 2010. Rather than coming up with schemes that benefit the very few, the Department of Education should fund every school adequately.
The last time the Department of Education gave a grant for PE equipment to schools was in 2010 (Circular 68/2010) and was worth at least €1,000 per school. This current fund, equates to approximately €52 per school…not good enough!