Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. Rural schools make up the majority of our primary school sector, with almost 2,000 out of just over 3,100 schools. As such, I fully recognise their value to communities throughout the country. They provide a vital link to local heritage and history, help sustain rural populations and often act as a link for sports and social activity.

The majority of rural schools, more than 1,200 of them, are classed as small, having four or fewer teachers. While facing the challenges and opportunities that all schools do, this particular group of schools has specific challenges. I will continue to listen to our partners on this and discuss what we can do to support small schools and ensure they have a sustainable future. The programme for Government makes a commitment not to close any small school without the consent of parents and I am honouring this partnership approach as I examine the issue.

I have spoken to international colleagues to hear their perspective and, together with my colleague, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Ring, I hosted a symposium on small schools. I want to engage actively with the people and organisations who work in and with small schools and who understand the value and opportunities they offer their communities.

Already, we as a Government have shown that we are listening and I was pleased to announced additional supports for small schools in budget 2020. Improved teacher staffing levels will be introduced for small schools with four teachers or fewer. The one-point reduction in the staffing schedule will help ensure better teacher retention in schools with up to four teachers by ensuring that one less pupil is required to retain and recruit a teacher. To be clear, we are dropping the retention and recruitment figure by one simultaneously. More than 1,300 schools will benefit from the pupil-teacher ratio reduction.

One additional release day will be provided for primary school teaching principals. The extra time to carry out administrative duties will apply to 1,760 schools with fewer than seven teachers. The work now under way on small schools seeks to build on this in a sustainable way.

Between now and next March, I will continue to engage with the main partners through the primary education forum and the Department's small schools steering group to develop a new policy of supports for small schools and feed into the Estimates process for 2021.

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