A GROUP of young local students have showcased their ingenuity in a way that could have favourable benefits for all young people in the future.
The students, from Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School in New Ross, decided to continue their ‘Study Buddies’ initiative for 2013.
The initiative was set up last year and was a great success, however, for this year the students – who are all in Transition Year – agreed to extend their work out into the wider community.
“We realised that there is a lot of complaining about the cuts to education but there was no action being taken,” they told The Echo.
“We believed that we could make a difference in local primary schools, crèches, our own school and the community workshop for special needs adults, by using our study buddies programme.”
The students said they decided on their project because it might make a difference in the lives of students, teachers and special needs adults.
While there were many national protests on the issue of cuts in education the TY students in New Ross felt nothing substantial was being done to address the problem and decided to take matters into their own hands.
“Although there were national protests going on about the topic we believed that nothing proactive was taking place,” they said.
“For publicity on our project, we wrote an article for local newspapers and w also contacted radio stations and got an interview on South East Radio and the John Murray Show.”
The students also held a public display on the side of the N25 during which they wore t-shirts and had a poster display relaying their message.
They also held two fundraising days in February and raised €440 for the Lasallian Developing World Project. They also raised €300 for UNICEF School-in-a-box.
This year’s TY students said they were delighted to ‘step up to the challenge’ of their counterparts from last year who were invited to Washington to address the White House Round Table Conference on special education issues.
The students went on to comment: “Just like the TY class of 2012, we realised that there is a lot of complaining about the cuts to education but nothing was being done to remedy the problem. With this in mind we decided to continue the programme and extend it to other areas in our community.”
They also highlighted the fact that cuts to education affect a broad section of the community: “We feel strongly about this project as cuts in education are affecting us all – negatively affecting primary schools in all our local parishes. Some of the students in our class received learning support in primary school and it made a huge difference to their lives.
Ireland is one of three EU countries to reduce spending across education, including student support, teacher numbers and infrastructure.
The crisis is severely affecting prospects for young people in particular with youth unemployment in Ireland at an all time high.”
Displaying a maturity way beyond their years the TY students have shown, to-date, that they possess the drive and determination to make a credible change in the lives of their peers. Their foresight and vision is something that Ireland’s national politicians could learn many lessons from.
