'Students are not files that can be pushed aside'

ST PAUL'S College in Raheny, Dublin, has already lost three year heads and is losing another assistant principal this summer.

Principal Ciaran McCormack, pictured, said the retirement of almost half of its year heads was having a negative effect on students.

"They are not files or bundles of paper that can be pushed to one side and dealt with in a few days."

He described the moratorium on filling these posts -- in effect since last year -- as a crude instrument introduced with little thought of its implications for the education sector.

"Not all schools were affected in the current year but it is expected that many more will be this autumn, some for a second time.

"The students who will be sitting the Junior Certificate next month entered first year a few months after the present Government took office in 2007. What has been their experience?

"Next September, as they enter their senior years, they may find that the school no longer offers Transition Year or that some subjects previously studied in the school are not available now."

Irish Independent