Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, for coming to the House to discuss this issue. Clooney National School is a small school in a rural setting outside Ennis, in the greater east Clare area. It is currently a four-teacher school. As a result of a drop in student numbers to 73 this year, there is a threat to its four-teacher status. As the Minister of State knows, the retention number is 79. I appeal to the Minister and the Department to give special consideration in this particular year for a number of reasons. First, an effort is being made to rejuvenate rural Ireland and if we do anything that reduces the level of teaching in smaller rural schools it impacts on that policy. Second, if this school is reduced to a three-teacher school effectively it will be teaching 73 pupils in three rooms rather than four. At a time when we are trying to keep children apart we are cramming them into three rooms as opposed to four, which does not make sense. It is a small school. The rooms are small. It has been built for a very considerable period and therefore it does not lend itself well to cram that number of students into three rooms when it was formally four. From a public health point of view, it would make sense to keep it a four-teacher school and retain that fourth teacher.

Across the board, children have suffered so much in the past year and half. They were out of education settings for a prolong period. While I am making a particular request on behalf of Clooney National School, the Department should look wider. The retention figure of 79 should be completely cast aside this year. Teachers should be kept in place because of the issues that have arisen with children effectively being out of school for the past year and a half. We should leave teachers in place for one more year and examine it again next year. In the context of Clooney National School, the numbers will be back up next year on the basis of what is expected in terms of young students coming to the school. In other words, it will be back to that retention level next year. I suspect other schools would benefit from the same consideration.In the light of everything that this happened with Covid-19 and of trying to ensure children remain apart in school insofar as they can, and recognising their education has been truncated and disrupted very significantly and that we are only placing a greater burden on schools that will lose a teacher where the class size and pupil-teacher teacher ratio will increase at a time when the children concerned can least afford this, on this occasion I appeal to the Minister of State to look favourably on Clooney National School and wider afield to schools throughout the country. There is a recognition that because of everything that kids have suffered, we should try to ensure there is some kind of a stable environment now for the next 12 months to help them to catch up on what is an important part of their formation in education.