John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

Regarding the findings of the report, one of the issues mentioned is that of class sizes. It is fair to ask the Minister what was the size of the class on which the students were assessed. On the general principle of class size I wish to make a number of points. The average class size in 1996-97 was 27. It is now 24. The pupil-teacher ratio in 1996-97 was 22. It is now 17. The percentage of pupils in classes of more than 30 was 41.8% in 1996-97. It is now 25.1%. The percentage of pupils in classes of more than 35 was 11.4% in 1996-97. It is now 2.2%. We are heading in the right direction and we have 4,000 more primary school teachers than we had in 2002. I can go through all of the figures.

The Minister has correctly directed resources to the areas in which they were most needed, namely, disadvantage, special needs and language skills. Plans are afoot to recruit 800 more teachers. My understanding is that 500 will be targeted into special areas and 300 into main classes. Schools have also decided within their own remit to at times allocate teachers to younger children at a lower pupil-teacher ratio than more senior classes. Overall, the pupil-teacher ratio has come down and will reduce further despite all the new challenges faced by the Minister in recent years.

We must welcome and work on this report. I do not support the calls for it to be withdrawn or the arguments that because of the sensitivities of certain people, they would be unhappy or offended in some way because questions are suddenly being asked about their profession and how it is taught. People have much to learn, including those in training colleges, students, we as politicians——