Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 39: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of new teaching posts which will be created in 2006. [13450/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is anticipated that at least 500 additional teaching posts will be created in the coming school year, 2006-07. These extra posts will be as a result of both Government announcements of extra staff to reduce class size and to tackle disadvantage, and of our commitment to provide extra teachers as needed to support children with special needs and those for whom English is not their first language.

The Deputy will be aware that primary schools are staffed on the basis of a general rule that there is at least one classroom teacher for every 29 pupils in the school. Of course, schools with only one or two teachers have much lower staffing ratios than that, with two teachers for just 12 pupils in some cases. At the time of the 2006 Estimates, I announced that for the coming school year this will be reduced to 28 children per classroom teacher and that for the 2007-08 school year it will be reduced to 27 children per classroom teacher.

The new and improved staffing schedule for the next school year issued to schools recently. The application of the new schedule, together with increases in enrolments at primary level, is expected to result in approximately 240 additional teaching posts for the coming school year. In addition, the terms of the current staffing arrangements for primary schools provide for extra posts, referred to as developing school posts, to be assigned to schools on the basis of projected enrolments for the following school year. These have also been allocated more generously this year. It is not possible to state with certainty the number of such posts which will be allocated for the coming school year. However, I estimate it will be approximately 150 posts.

Two other areas driven by need are teaching support for children with special needs and language support for students whose first language is not English at both primary and post-primary levels. The number of teachers in our schools working specifically with children with special needs has grown substantially in recent years. Approximately 5,000 teachers in our primary schools now work directly with children with special needs, including those requiring learning support, compared to 1,500 in 1998. The number of language support teachers at primary and post-primary level increased substantially to the tune of more than 100 extra posts annually in recent years. In the areas of support for children with special needs and those whose first language is not English it is difficult to estimate exactly how many extra teachers will be needed in the next school year.

Regarding support for children from disadvantaged areas, the Deputy is aware that last year I launched a new action plan for tackling disadvantage, DEIS, one aspect of which will be more staffing for the most disadvantaged schools. The plan provides for an extra 300 posts across the education system over the course of a five year period. Some of these are teaching posts and others are support staff. I expect that approximately 150 extra teaching posts will have been created in primary and post-primary schools by the end of the next school year under the DEIS plan. Taken together, next year will yet again see a considerable increase of approximately 500 extra teachers in the level of staffing in our schools.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Notwithstanding the huge developments that have taken place in additional teaching staff in our schools, will the Minister acknowledge it is still too little and too late? I spoke to the Minister exactly a year ago this month on the programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes for pupils under nine years of age to less than 20. That will not be implemented during the lifetime of this Government. I am sure the Minister acknowledges that.

Will the Minister concede that the OECD report on attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers called for an additional 1,600 primary teachers? How many of that 1,600 are included in the figure of 500 the Minister gave today? If we consider issues such as problems with school discipline, the report of the taskforce on student behaviour recommended that the five year old McGuinness report on the allocation of teachers in second-level schools be implemented. The second recommendation of that report is for an additional 1,200 teachers at second-level. Those figures amount to a total of 2,800 additional teachers. What proportion of the figure in terms of extra teachers this year, last year and the previous year comes from that 2,800? How much more must the Minister do and will she get it done within the remaining year of the Government's term?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The system would not have the capacity to introduce more than 500 teachers next year. That is generally accepted by the education partners. Those 500 teachers will be placed across all of the Government's priorities, namely, disadvantage, special needs and the reduction of class size.

During the past number of years, 4,000 extra teachers entered the system through enrolments, population and, particularly, in the reduction of class sizes and special needs. I and my predecessors identified special needs and disadvantage as the major priorities for this Government. That is why we targeted it in the way we did and through measures such as the general allocation on special needs, which allowed for 660 extra teachers last year alone, ensured we had more teachers in classrooms and schools.

Regarding second-level, the Deputy referred to the taskforce on behaviour. It is clear one could have no behavioural problem in a class of 30 and have a serious behavioural problem in a class of ten. The number of students in a class does not reflect discipline, control, respect or the relationship between the teacher and the students. Extra posts have been created at second-level, particularly in special needs and guidance, which I targeted at junior levels and those making the transition from primary to second-level.

The teacher allocation at second-level is extremely generous and the pupil-teacher ratio has reduced in ten years to 13.4. There is a teacher for approximately every 13 second-level students. The reason it is that low is because it must cater for the wide curriculum. An Irish class might have 25 students but a Spanish class might only have five. In ensuring different levels, such as foundation, pass and higher level, and a broad curriculum are on offer, class sizes are different at second-level. However, the pupil-teacher ratio of 13.4 is extremely generous.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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In her response, the Minister mentioned having sufficient capacity for an extra 500 teachers. By capacity does the Minister mean space in which those teachers can operate?

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Training places.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Perhaps I am incorrect on that. What co-ordination is done between the section of her Department which deals with posts and that which deals with school buildings to ensure these teachers have classrooms?

The Minister will recall that in February we discussed non-national children in schools. Once a school has 28 such children they receive two teaching posts. However, even if more than 100 or 200 non-national children attend the school an extra post is not allocated unless at the Minister's discretion. Has any progress been made in dealing with that issue, which relates to teacher numbers?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I was not discussing buildings, I was discussing the availability of teachers. Retirements, secondments and extra needs in the classrooms mean the issue is the availability of the number of teachers. An allocation of 500 extra teachers in one school year is extremely generous and will make a great difference to our schools. It is due to the reduction in class size and special needs, and is a more generous allocation because of the development of schools.

Regarding international children, a new issue which arose during the past few years is that 800 teachers in primary and secondary schools, with a breakdown of 600 to 200, do nothing else except teach English as a foreign language. That could not have been anticipated five years ago. I accept certain schools have a particular concentration of such children who make up a high percentage of the entire school population. Department officials have visited a number of these schools. We had meetings with the education partners and are in the process of working out a policy. The allocation of two, or even three, teachers is not sufficient in some schools.

The allocation of language support for two years is not sufficient for all children. We recognise wider cultural issues exist and that the idea of having supports for their families is equally important. These children receive language lessons in school and go home where English is not spoken, which does not help them to progress. I am actively working on this issue. That all adds to the number of teachers we need. It might have been much easier to assign these teachers to the under-nines if I had not had to deal with the special needs children, for whom 5,000 teachers provide learning support. I also target disadvantaged students, and assigned 800 teachers to deal specifically with language.

It is not possible to deal with everything at the same time and we must decide on the priorities. Special needs and disadvantage are the top priorities on which we will continue to focus. At the same time we have made real progress on reduction of the class size in this year's schedule and next year's schedule.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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I congratulate the Minister on being named Magill Politician of the Year last night. She must be somewhat smarter than her colleagues. Were they fooling the people when they said in the agreed programme for Government that they would bring the class sizes down to European norms and the under-nines would be in classes with a ratio lower than 20:1? As soon as the Minister took office she said she could not do this and she has just told us that the capacity is for only 500 teachers in the year. The Minister is obviously the brightest and the best but what about her colleagues and their promise?

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Is the Cabinet holding the Minister back?

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I too congratulate the Minister on the major award she received last night. I was nominated for heckler of the year but did not perform very well. However, I slept well last night.

We all welcome the 500 extra teachers into the system because they are urgently needed. How many will leave the system at the same time as those 500 are being introduced?

Will the order of the Minister's priorities this year again be disadvantage, disability and class size? Does the Minister know what percentage of the new graduate teachers coming into the classrooms next year will be male? It is important to retain the balance in Irish education and have male role models for the pupils.

Many schools, teachers and parents at clinics and advice centres complain that there is a major crisis for children with disabilities in second level education because the resources do not follow them into that level.

Does the Minister have any plans or constructive proposals on how to stop the drift from some schools which are losing many of their bright pupils? Some schools have become "ghettoised" as the most disadvantaged and poor children seem to end up in one school. We have lost the positive mix we had 20 or 30 years ago. It is dangerous for the future of society to have some elitist schools while others are "ghettoised".

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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I nominate Deputy Finian McGrath for the brevity award.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for her kind comments on my prestigious award.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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I intended them sincerely.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Any award winner is only as good as those marking her. We are enjoying a shared, reflected glory in the Chamber today.

If we did not make a priority of special needs and disadvantage we would have much smaller class sizes at junior level. Is anybody in this Chamber or elsewhere going to tell me that special needs and disadvantage should not be a major priority?

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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They need additional funding.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I know the thoughts of each person here on that issue. I invested in those two areas first because they are top priorities for me and the Government. I have made a commitment this year and for next year on class size and look forward, when I am re-elected, le cúnamh Dé, to being able to do even more about this problem. I am nothing if not up front and honest about it. Schools will recognise exactly what the priorities are and why.

A new priority emerged with international students because it is not possible to have thousands of pupils in our schools who do not speak English. We had to assign teachers to them as well. The 500 teachers are extra, there will be others over and above that number to replace those who will retire etc.

It is a serious problem for the profession that sufficient men are not attracted to teaching because children need role models of both genders. It would be a negative development for the teaching profession and schools to be completely feminised. All male teachers in medicine or engineering would not be acceptable. That is why we are actively running the men as teachers and educators, MATE, campaign to attract men into teaching. It appears that although there is a drop in the numbers applying for teacher training this year there is an increase in the number of men applying.

I hope we can all take a positive approach to teaching and that career guidance teachers and parents will recommend it as a profession. At present parents and career guidance counsellors tell the good female students that teaching would be a lovely job for them but suggest that the good male students do something else. Teaching is not portrayed as having the same status for men as for women. As a society we must deal with that problem.

In response to Deputy Finian McGrath's question about people moving between areas to change school, some schools cherrypick their students on the basis of special needs and background. They do this within the confines of their own enrolment policies by saying, particularly to the special needs pupils, that the school down the road can deal better with them. This is a sly, underhand way of dealing with the inclusive school society we should have. I have addressed this at each of the conferences I have attended and will do so again at the conferences held over the Easter holidays.