Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 725: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the action she will take regarding the high class sizes at a school (details supplied) in Dublin 9; and if she will make class size a priority issue in 2006. [10134/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Major improvements in school staffing have been made in recent years with the hiring of more than 5,000 additional primary teachers. This represents the largest increase in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education. Today there is one teacher for every 17 children, the lowest pupil-teacher ratio in the history of the State.

Aside from decreasing average class size, the unprecedented increase in school staffing in recent years has also greatly improved the services provided for children with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas. Under DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, the action plan for education inclusion that I launched in May 2005, there will be a reduction in class sizes to 24:1 at senior level and 20:1 at junior level in the 180 primary schools serving communities with the highest concentrations of disadvantage. With more than 600 extra resource teachers put in place in this school year, children with special needs are getting more support than ever before. It should be acknowledged how much progress has been made in this area in recent years.

Recently I announced that I have secured sufficient funding to provide even smaller classes in our primary schools in the next school year, and the Minister for Finance has committed to a further reduction in class size in the following year. Accordingly, in the next two years, the Department of Education and Science will put 500 extra teachers into primary schools to reduce class size and to tackle disadvantage.

The staffing of a primary school is determined by reference to the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous school year. The actual number of mainstream posts sanctioned is determined by reference 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. Schools with only one or two teachers have much lower staffing ratios, with two teachers for just 12 pupils in some cases. However, the general rule is that there is at least one classroom teacher for every 29 children in the school. Next year this is being reduced to 28 children per classroom teacher and in 2007-08 it will be reduced to 27 children per classroom teacher. Circular 0023/2006 outlining the revised staffing schedule for the 2006-07 school year is available on the Department of Education and Science website. Hard copies of the circular have been issued to all primary schools.

The terms of the current staffing arrangements for primary schools make 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 mainstream staffing of the school referred to by the Deputy for the 2006-07 school year will be a principal and nine mainstream class teachers based on an enrolment of 242 pupils on 30 September 2005. The school will also have two learning support-resource teacher posts.

It is open to the board of management of a primary school to submit an appeal, under certain criteria, to the primary staffing appeal board. The board adjudicates on appeals on mainstream staffing allocations in primary schools and operates independently of the Minister and the Department of Education and Science. The board's decisions are final. The criteria under which an appeal can be made have been revised and are set out in Primary Circular 0024/2006, which is available on the Department of Education and Science's website.