John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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17. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what steps will be taken to operationalise the commitment in the programme for Government to introduce a new national small schools project for all 1,300 small primary schools to protect these school communities and develop new administrative supports. [8505/25]

John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Another welcome initiative in the programme for Government is the extension of a pilot scheme that has been running in several smaller schools that have come together to seek the synergy of their operations within the community and how they might get administrative support from the Department. The schools involved in this scheme went about their business in different manners and different schools sought to work together on different aspects. It would be very beneficial, however, if we could come up with a communal way of employing this administrative support and applying it across all small schools.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As someone who attended a small school where we only had three classrooms, I cannot stress the benefit and need for us to prioritise supporting our small schools and doing everything we can to retain them.

What we have provided in the programme for Government is a very clear commitment to provide measures to support small schools, including introducing a new national small schools project and trialling those new administrative supports the Deputy has mentioned. There is an established project, which brings together small schools in local clusters, enabling them to collaborate, identify common challenges and trial innovative solutions.

There are 26 small schools in the cluster in counties Galway, Donegal, Kerry, Wicklow and Waterford, consisting of between three and five schools per cluster. The feedback from schools has been extremely positive and this is reflected in the interim evaluation report. We want to make sure our small schools recognise the important role they play in our communities. They need to be retained and supported. We must ensure the staff, teachers and pupils benefit from that clustering and pooling together of resources, whether that is administrative support, sharing ideas or training. We can already see the positive feedback from the pilot work in the clusters that have been developed.

It is my intention to roll out that programme to ensure we can work with even more schools and provide for them, recognising the important role they play in our communities the length and breadth of this country. We must support them in their leadership and teaching roles and ensure our students above all also benefit from this.

John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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We all recognise the importance of small schools within communities, particularly in communities that might have suffered the loss of other services. We are all familiar with towns and villages throughout the country that might have lost banking and post office services. There is always an outcry rightly when these things occur but the school should be sacrosanct within that. If we can support those small schools and communities to maintain their operation, it will keep the community vibrant.

I also welcome that the Minister outlined some feedback from the schools who operate in this scheme already. Two clusters in County Galway went separately about their business but found advantages through working together on the administrative support found in different aspects of the operation of the schools.

I know the professional dilemma school principals face when they are also charged with teaching a class. It is an extremely challenging position. Any support we can given to school principals in that position will be most welcome.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I highlight the positive benefits we have seen so far in the clusters that have been developed. First, they help to reduce the sense of isolation among school staff, particularly in rural areas and where there is a small number of staff. The Department has combined teacher allocation hours with part-time hours, where feasible, to create full-time posts and make it easier for those schools to recruit teachers. Another benefit is providing consistency in teaching and learning. Oide, the support service for teachers, has provided training on a cluster basis, rather than individually, using the clusters to help staff to deepen their relationships. The administrative supports the Deputy mentioned have been trialled in an effort to ease the administrative burden on teaching principals. Two administrative roles with a different focus are being trialed in two separate clusters, in Gort and Donegal, for the next 18 months. It is about sharing knowledge and best practice and encouraging joint pupil-teacher participation, including in sport and music. Above all, it is about recognising the important role our rural schools play and making sure we do everything possible to support and retain them.