Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

Class sizes have been lowered by reducing the average number of pupils per teacher from 35 in 1996-97 to the current level of 27. Significant additional supports have also been provided and we have reduced class sizes in the most disadvantaged of our DEIS schools. During the last school year almost 80% of children attending primary school were in classes with fewer than 30 pupils. With over 20,000 individual classes spread across all primary schools throughout the country, there will always be differences in individual class sizes.

Multi-grade classes are the norm in the majority of our primary schools given the number of relatively small schools that have four teachers or fewer. There is no evidence whatsoever that being taught in a multi-grade setting is to the detriment of the child.

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