James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me time to discuss this important matter regarding the convent primary school, Rochfortbridge, County Westmeath, roll number 14603J. There is an urgent need for the Minister to reconsider the decision to suppress the eighth mainstream teacher post in the convent primary school, from September 2009. The enrolment in this school on 30 September 2008 was 206 pupils, one above the retention figure for September 2009 prior to the cutbacks announced in budget 2008. From September 2008 to January 2009, the enrolment fluctuated marginally upwards from 206 to 211 at the beginning of this year. This puts the school well above the retention figure of 207 required to retain the post for 2009 under the new guidelines. The reality of the loss of a teacher for this school, which has 42 pupils enrolled for junior infants in the new term in September, is that they will be forced to put children into multi-grade groupings of up to 31 per class.

The Rochfortbridge primary school, with rising numbers of pupils, has already outgrown its built environment, with three temporary classrooms or pre-fabs already required. The classrooms in the school are much smaller than average and incapable of holding amalgamated groupings. This poses a serious health and safety issue. This school accepts special needs children and it is obvious that those in this category in the lower classes will suffer educationally from large class groupings in the most formative years of their education.

One of the most important factors to remember is that schools such as Rochfortbridge convent primary were not built to accommodate the number of pupils that have applied for places, due to new housing developments and rising population figures that pertain today. This presents the school with a valid concern for health and safety.

I have said before about other schools in my constituency that are housed in substandard, outdated accommodation that the buck stops with the Minister and his Department and accidents caused by overcrowding and substandard buildings are directly their responsibility.

Rochfortbridge convent primary is a victim of its own success. The dedicated work of the principal, the board of management and the staff is much appreciated in the locality. It is a much sought after school serving the area and is caught in a catch-22 situation in terms of rising numbers. The school was coping well despite the limitations on space with eight mainstream teachers, but the loss of one will place it in an untenable position. It is unfair to pupils, teachers and parents to deprive this school of its most valuable educational tool - one of its much needed and highly regarded teachers.

I am asking the Minister to reconsider the educational, health and safety and child centred needs of the pupils of the convent primary school Rochfortbridge and allow it to retain this much needed teacher.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, Minister for Education and Science. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on the Adjournment today.

The Minister for Education and Science is committed to providing information on the allocation of teachers to schools and as a new feature on the Department's website. The process has begun with the provision earlier this year of initial information on the allocation of mainstream classroom teachers to primary schools under the revised schedule for 2009/10.

In terms of the position at individual primary school level, the key factor for determining the level of resources provided by the Department is the pupil enrolment at 30 September 2008. The annual process of seeking this enrolment data from schools took place in the autumn and the data has since been received and processed in the Department, enabling the commencement of the processes by which teaching resources are allocated to schools for the school year that begins next September.

The Department has written to the primary schools that are projected to have a net loss or gain in classroom teaching posts in September 2009. As part of the Minister's efforts to ensure that relevant information is openly available to the public, detailed information on the opening position for primary schools is now published on the Department's website. This provisional list sets out the details on individual schools that, taken collectively, are projected to gain 128 posts and to lose 382 posts - a net reduction of 254 posts. It is the Minister's intention to have this information updated, and ultimately, to set out the final position when the allocation processes are completed.

Within the terms of the staffing arrangements for primary schools there is provision for additional posts, referred to as developing school posts, to be assigned to schools on the basis of projected enrolments for the next school year. Under these arrangements, a developing school post may be sanctioned provisionally where the projected enrolment at 30 September of the school year in question equals or exceeds a specified figure. If the specified figure is not achieved on 30 September, sanction for the post is withdrawn. The final position for any one school will depend on a number of other factors such as the additional posts for schools that are developing rapidly, to which I have already referred, and posts allocated as a result of the appeals processes. The operation of redeployment arrangements also impacts on the final position as a teacher can remain in his or her existing school where a suitable redeployment position does not exist. The final staffing position for all schools will therefore not be known until the autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed for mainstream classroom teachers and appeals to the primary staffing appeals board will have been considered.

At its meeting on 14 May 2009, the appeal board considered an appeal submitted by the board of management of Rochfortbridge convent primary school. The appeal was considered under section 10 of the primary staffing schedule (circular 02/2009) which is available on the Department's website at www.education.ie. The appeal board decided that a departure from the staffing schedule was not warranted in this case and therefore refused the appeal on the grounds that the required pupil numbers were not validly enrolled in September or October 2008 in this school.

The appeal board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.

I thank the Deputy once again for raising this matter.

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Another quango. No accountability to the local community.