Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 1297: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if extra teaching staff can or will be allocated to a school (details supplied) in County Kildare based on the class size and the number of pupils attending; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1609/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The mainstream staffing of a primary school is determined by applying the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous school year to a staffing schedule which is issued annually to all primary schools.

The general rule is that the schedule provides 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 and so on — but the general rule is that there is at least one classroom teacher for every 29 children in the school. Next year that is being reduced to 28 children per classroom teacher, and in 2007-08 it will be reduced to 27 children per classroom teacher. Officials of my Department are drawing up the revised staffing schedule necessary to achieve that. Schools will be asked to use the extra class teachers provided as a result of the revised schedule to provide for smaller classes in the junior grades.

The mainstream staffing of the school referred to by the Deputy for the current school year is a principal and nine mainstream class teachers, based on an enrolment of 243 pupils at 30 September 2004. The school also has one permanent learning support or resource post, one permanent special class post, and the services of a shared permanent learning support or resource post, a shared temporary resource post and a shared temporary language support post, all based in the school.

According to data submitted to my Department by the board of management, the enrolment in the school on 30 September 2005 was 248 pupils. The staffing for the 2006-07 school year will be determined on the basis of this figure and in accordance with the revised staffing schedule.