Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. As he is very well aware, there has been ongoing lobbying about Portlean national school, although this may be the first time it has formally appeared on his desk. We are living in difficult economic times and must examine certain areas where we can make savings. However we must keep a very sharp focus on our education system. We must work towards the future and if we make trimmings in the budget regarding covering the proper educational needs of children at a primary level we will face grave danger in years to come.

In September, one teacher will have sole responsibility for five class bands ranging from junior infants to third class. The second teacher will have 24 children in three class bands. While this is not unique I would like to be specific on the five class bands with 24 children. I recognise the role of the teacher in the educational curriculum, which states that it is "informed by a concern for the uniqueness of the child". One teacher has to come in every day to satisfy the specific point in the curriculum and address the uniqueness of each child for junior and senior infants and first, second and third classes.

The curriculum also states that there is a responsibility to "ensure that the complexity of children's learning needs is served by a learning process that is rich and varied." It will be varied, but will it be rich? I have to say, "No." Added to that band of five classes, there are the specific educational needs of certain children. Taking into consideration that all children have the right to access to the highest quality education appropriate to their needs, in September a teacher will go home every evening having to prepare eight different levels of work in 11 subject areas. This is impossible.

We must think of our experiences at school. The Minister knows the needs of a third class student and a junior infant are completely different. At junior infant level there is much role play and development work on social skills and oral work. That is fundamental at junior and senior infants level.

Into the bargain at Portlean national school, the extension was completed in 2007. The then Minister, Deputy Hanafin participated and we had great fanfare in the local community, which was welcomed. I welcomed this and participated in the celebrations. However in September, because the school is one student short of the number that would ensure it is a three-class school, there will be an empty classroom built and funded by the Government. The Minister is conscientious about his brief. Is it right that we have invested in a new classroom only to leave it idle because of a new quota system introduced?

This backdated quota ruling was a sinister move. A school with 48 students and three classrooms - because there are not 49 pupils on the roll book and because of the backdated ruling - will have only two teachers, and one teacher will have five different bands to work with while there is an empty classroom.

Is this right? I know the Minister will say it is not, and he will talk about the economic climate and cutbacks. Irrespective of the civil servant's script he has before him and the sinister ruling, I ask the Minister to take personal responsibility on this issue. It is not morally right that we have five different bands of students to one teacher. It goes against the grain of the curriculum and who we are as a nation in terms of putting our children before everything to ensure we work towards our future. I ask the Minister for his intervention, irrespective of the script.

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