Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

I wish to raise the proposed loss of a second mainstream teacher in Carramore national school in Killasser, Swinford, County Mayo. While I accept there were 45 students on the roll last September, the projected number for the next three years is 50 plus. It is extremely difficult to understand why there are three teachers teaching 45 pupils this year but it is expected that only two teachers will teach 50 plus pupils next year. That seems to be planning backwards not forwards. In recent weeks two new families have moved to the area and enrolled their children in the school, so there are now 50 plus students in the school. As a result, I ask the Minister to grant the school a hearing so that it will not lose its second mainstream teacher.

This is a small school in a rural area. If the number of teachers is reduced from three to two, it will have a huge impact on the quality of education for the children and on the morale of the school and the teachers. I could understand it if the trend was downwards but it is upwards. There was a slight dip last September but that has changed. As I said, there are now 50 plus students on the roll. There are real grounds for appeal.

We hear much about rural regeneration and development etc., but if basic services such as primary education are hit, especially when the trend is upwards, I do not see what chance there is for a school in a rural area. Many new houses are being built in the area and that means there will be more pupils in the school. The system must respond to current and future enrolment figures in the school rather than to past figures.

As well as the prospect of losing the teacher, the school has been told that a prefab, which came with the third teacher and which is very badly needed, will have to go. It has been told it will be entitled to get it back the following year when the third teacher is restored. This causes severe disruption.

Conditions in the school are poor. There are no outside facilities for play — it has a very small yard. It has been turned down for funding from the Department to renovate a playing field. The facilities are poor enough but if the prefab and the third teacher are taken away, I agree with the parents that it will be an injustice to the children who deserve better.

The possibility of a school such as this gaining the status of a developing school whereby it increases its enrolment by 25 or more pupils is not relevant because it is a small school in a rural area. To apply such rules to schools such as this does not make sense. The idea that one size fits all discriminates against small schools, particularly small schools in rural areas. I ask the Minister of State to consider the appeal regarding the proposed loss of the second mainstream teacher.

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