Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline the position regarding staffing in primary schools. I am happy to take this matter on behalf of the Minister.

The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing schedule is an allocation mechanism that uses enrolment bands to determine the number of classroom teaching posts allocated to a school.

This is a long-standing arrangement for allocating teaching posts to our primary schools in a fair and equitable way based on the respective enrolment. Previous budgets of 2016, 2018 and 2021 improve the staffing schedule by one point on each occasion to its historical lowest level ever of one classroom teacher, on average, to 25 pupils, with lower thresholds applying to Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, urban band 1 schools. In addition, there has been a three-point reduction in the retention schedule, which has helped schools that would otherwise be at risk of losing teaching posts.

The staffing arrangements include a provision whereby schools experiencing rapid increases in enrolment can apply for additional permanent mainstream posts on developing grounds using projected enrolment. I understand that this, as the Deputy outlined, is what occurred here. Holy Spirit Junior National School was allocated a temporary teaching post on this basis, as a school that indicated it was expecting an enrolment of 263 pupils in September 2021, which was a projected increase of 25 pupils. The Deputy conceded that there were some children who were going to enrol but did not. The Department received an enrolment return of 246 pupils from this school as at 30 September 2021, which is an increase of eight in the pupil enrolment of the previous year. The enrolment required to retain the post for the remainder of the year was 263 pupils. Therefore, the school was informed, as the Deputy correctly said, that the post was to be suppressed at the end of October last. Therefore, with an enrolment of 246 pupils, which is what it has at present, and 13 mainstream teachers, the school is operating on a mainstream pupil-teacher ratio of 18.9:1. This compares favourably with the general allocation ratio of 20:1 for junior DEIS schools. It is important to point that out.

The staffing process includes, as the Deputy said, an appeals mechanism for schools to submit a staffing appeal under certain published criteria. The school appealed the suppression of the post to the primary staffing appeals board, which refused the appeal on the basis that the grounds of the appeal did not warrant the allocation of an additional post under the published staffing arrangements. The primary staffing appeals board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final. I know the Deputy is aware of all that.

It is important to say that there has to be a fair, equitable, transparent and clear type of staffing schedule. When we are talking about schools, we cannot have one rule for one school and another rule for another school. That is the issue that has happened here. The school staffing for the current school year was finalised in October following the completion of the staffing appeals process. The school is not, as the Deputy knows, due to lose a teaching post next week. I have taken into account what the Deputy said, however, about using up the class scheme etc. All types of schools have to be treated equally, irrespective of location. My understanding of this school is that because there had been a projected number of children who were due to attend the school and then did not attend, we have, at the moment, sufficient teachers. This is 13 mainstream teachers, for a pupil-teacher ratio of 18.9:1, when then normal junior DEIS school would be 20:1. The Department is therefore satisfied that it has sufficient staffing under the circumstances.

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