Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

Everyone accepts that progress has been made but the Minister must accept that there is overcrowding in many classrooms. The figures in my possession indicate that 111,000 primary school pupils are in classes of 30 or more. This means that more than one in four of the State's 442,000 primary school students are in such classes. Does the Minister agree that this is unfair on students and on their teachers? In many cases, this is not conducive to learning, it contributes to indiscipline and it hampers the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn. Does the Minister agree that it is imperative that small class sizes must be maintained from early years right through children's education because this would prove beneficial? When does she propose to reduce class sizes to the 20:1 ratio promised by the Government?

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