Congratulations to our colleagues in Cork City at CSN for once again getting involved with an impassioned plea. I don’t care which politician brings it to the media’s attention. The DUP can come down and get involved for all we care, Union flags and all, if it will wake people up to the 10% cut in frontline staffing of the very colleges that are needed to get people back to work.

We’re getting very sick of all the teacher bashing. It’s an old joke – time to give it up. So you had a bastard teacher back in the day that smoked fags and read the paper – well get over it. We work bloody hard and when we start work we hit the ground running. We don’t slouch at desks for half an hour drinking coffee to wake up. We don’t have time to tinker with Facebook all day.

People, get real?! Who do you think is going to teach the next generation of business leaders and workers? Head over to CorkCollegeofCommerce.ie and get back to me with a course that you don’t think provides worthwhile skills and employment. OK, so maybe you’ve never seen the inside of a nail bar – neither have I; but that doesn’t mean that nail technicians, beauticians, complementary therapists, childcare, accountancy, security, computing, app development, PR, business studies, marketing, food and catering … and so many more that I’m sure I have forgotten are not needed. There’s lots of things most of us don’t appreciate – but other people do.

But lets leave everyone with their stupid comments about teachers in the Dáil (I’m not in the Dáil – and remember lady, you voted this shower of eejits into the Dáil, we all did); students are being short-changed here. Courses are going to close. Absolutely. It is the most ridiculous thing (after paying bond holders) that the Government is capable of doing.

And when you’ve forgotten about this 10% cut to essential further education courses they’ll be back on the news bloated with news of how they going to get us all back to work.

If a multi-national company were to pull out of some town in Ireland today with the loss of 200 jobs there would be serious huffing and puffing from all political parties. Kill the jobs of 200 teachers and not a peep from most of them.

Government party TDs have been telling us that VECs can make up the shortfall in resources. Not true. You can’t replace a teacher by moving to single-ply toilet paper. They tell us that it would really mean the loss of places for students. How? Did someone miss maths class. 10% of teachers gone. Courses closed. Places will be gone.

This is some country we’re living in. Perhaps it is time we started teaching a course in how to emigrate. The Government would be pleased.

I got part time job in a Dublin PLC last year. I loved it, and then it was “see yea later” this year because of these cuts.

totally agree the government are very short sighted in where the cuts are made and this comes from lack of consultation with grass roots and how things really are on the ground level.

Here’s one of my own major ‘policies’ that successive governments seem to be going away from and down the ‘short-term’ route again.
We have a major problem with crime in this country and its only getting worse. The cost to the state is spiraling to a massive level. The only way to conquer this long term is to invest in education AND support services for kids and particularly in disadvantaged areas where unemployment is high.
Simple applicatiom of economies of scale would show that a decent size investment in these kids at an early stage,would save the state hugely and not just in money terms but also in social terms down the line!
Again,however,we end up with the same short-sighted policies that have resulted in the broken systems we have

Waste of time asking them not to make cuts. They don’t care. Simple as that.

I work in the plc sector and we provide real courses that lead to real jobs. The entire service industry is founded on plc courses-the childcare worker who cares for your child,the care assistant who cares for the elderly,the administration staff in offices,beauticans,security personnell…they all receive their training in this sector. we also offer a second chance for students returning to education after a long gap and opportunities to progress to higher education through links schemes with universities

To cut plc sector is shortsighted to say the least

The minister will do nothing to reverse this cut the government are going to make a point of not rolling back on silly cuts. Governments in this country have being lying to us for far too long and imposing all the pain on the Irish people and their children. The best leaders lead by example our leaders hoof and poof and does what the whip tells them to do and never do what they tell us before elections. The administration is a word to describe a government you could always use unrepresentative ( governments that represents only a few people in a society rather than the majority of people) this country is doomed with our weak political system and politicians .

The “teachers” in the dail should get back into schools and do what they are being paid to do!!

I want to preface what I say below by underlining that when it comes to education and cost cutting, the emotional side and attachment to many of the courses on offer needs to be removed. What people forget is that these courses really need to be sustainable from a financial point of view. We shouldn’t be offering courses “just because” or “for fun” because when we do, **other** areas of public spending will suffer.

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Unrealistic Sinn Fein at it again, there is money for everyone, for everything. No needs for there to be cuts. Get real guys! Also an increase in the ratio of student to teacher from 17 to 19 is very little given that it’s no longer mandatory education and moving into 3rd level. Lectures could have up to 60 students per lecturer very easily! At any rate,e veryone knows that many courses offered by these places are mickey mouse, let’s have a look at just *some* of the ones on offer in Colaiste Stiofan Naofa http://www.csn.ie/site/html/general/courses.htm:

Soccer Education & Coaching – http://www.csn.ie/site/html/sport/c-soc-ed-coach.htm – Is soccer coaching a course that needs to be taught? Is there sustainable demand? Will soccer coaching provide value for money? Is this the achilles heel of the FAI currently, as opposed to John Delaney and Trapp’s obscene salaries?

Golf at Fota – Really? This is being offered? Anyone who can afford a golf slot in Fota doesn’t need a course in Colaiste Stiofan to learn.

Reflexology – an alternative medicine with no sound scientific base and a field which is not endorsed by either the British or Irish medical councils.

Fun with flowers
Email, Skype and Online Shopping
Art Therapy

I really don’t know where to start with these courses. I honestly cannot wrap my head around the titles and the potential of what is on offer, as well as the potential finance wasted if these courses are not financially viable.

These are the people who cut carers allowance, and won’t reverse that. They aren’t going to give above matter a second thought.

Sinn Fein are closing dozens of school across the North of Ireland which is why they neither attend nor hold public meetings nor even discuss educational issues in the border counties. Such complete, predictable hypocrites.

sounds like belly aching from the one sector who have no sense of reality……. publish the average rate per lecturing hour for these positions and you will find that they are not economic to run due to the t&c that the lectures themselves have negotiated!

This article would be a bit more balanced if a comment from the government side had been sought.