Education Archives - Solidarity (Ireland)

Hands off SNAs – for an appropriate school place & support for every child

Text of Socialist Party leaflet Over 200 schools across the country received notice that they faced reductions in their Special Needs Assistants (SNA) staff. Some were to lose half their SNAs! Euphemisms abounded as the government tried to justify this very unpopular

Feb 25, 2026

Featured Articles·News & Analysis

Staffing crisis worsens as public services erode

By Valerie O’Leary Poor pay and conditions, especially in the context of the cost of living crisis, and staff burnout are leading to a difficulty in retaining and recruiting public sector staff. Combined with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the

Oct 15, 2022

News & Analysis

Back-to-school costs – another heavy burden for working-class people

By Conor Burke The cost of kids returning to school is weighing heavy on many parents, especially this year as the cost of living crisis intensifies the struggles that many parents face annually just to ensure their kids get an education. On

Aug 15, 2022

Featured Articles·News & Analysis

Leaving Cert: End competition for third level education

By Councillor Leah Whelan The year has begun with a massive spike in Covid cases in schools and throughout society. Naturally, there is huge uncertainty about what the next months will bring for exam year students and teachers. Sixth-year students still face

Jan 14, 2022

News & Analysis·The North

North: Fight for genuinely integrated education

By Emma Ward This month sees the 40th anniversary of Lagan College, Northern Ireland’s first integrated school. Opening their doors in September 1981 they welcomed just 28 students, under police presence and armed guards, to a small Scout hall. Since then, their

Sep 19, 2021

Featured Articles·News & Analysis

Beacon Hospital vaccine controversy — how the super-rich can ignore the rules

Vaccines being doled out as if they were tickets for a corporate box in the Aviva Stadium. This in essence sums up the scandal surrounding Michael Cullen, CEO of the for-profit Beacon hospital, and the vaccinations he arranged for 20 teachers from

Apr 1, 2021

Campaigns & Issues·Workplace News

Support teachers’ strike for equal pay

By Diarmuid Naessans, TUI (personal capacity) The Teachers Union of Irelands TUI campaign of strike action for Equal Pay for Equal Work will receive huge support from workers and the general public. New entrant teachers earn 14% less in the early years

Feb 3, 2020

News & Analysis

‘Budget of Omission’ as key crises in housing, education & health ignored.

• Workers must not be made pay for Brexit – deferral of minimum wage must be opposed. • Carbon tax won’t deliver climate action & will increase fuel poverty Brexit Bailout Speaking on behalf of Solidarity and the Socialist Party, Mick Barry

Oct 8, 2019

News & Analysis

Teachers demand pay equality

The Socialist spoke to Socialist Party member Sandra Fay, a secondary school teacher in Tallaght and an activist in the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI). She spoke about the next steps for teachers’ quest for pay equality after the ASTI and

Jan 17, 2019

Featured Articles·News & Analysis

Homelessness, inequality, childcare… Why capitalism isn’t delivering?

By Kevin McLoughlin SUPPLY AND demand in the “free market” is supposedly the best way to produce what we need.“Free market” are just sanitised words for capitalism – production for profit. The pursuit of profit inevitably leads to economic inequality and as

Sep 10, 2017

Education

Hands off SNAs – for an appropriate school place & support for every child

Staffing crisis worsens as public services erode

Back-to-school costs – another heavy burden for working-class people

Leaving Cert: End competition for third level education

North: Fight for genuinely integrated education

Beacon Hospital vaccine controversy — how the super-rich can ignore the rules

Support teachers’ strike for equal pay

‘Budget of Omission’ as key crises in housing, education & health ignored.

Teachers demand pay equality

Homelessness, inequality, childcare… Why capitalism isn’t delivering?

Socialist Alternative – Marxist journal of Solidarity

Divide & Rule pamphlet by Peter Hadden