Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 106: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she is in a position to improve pupil-teacher ratios in line with best international practice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13458/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The pupil-teacher ratio at primary level on a national basis, which includes all the teachers including learning support-resource teachers, has fallen from 22.2:1 in the 1996-97 school year to 17.1:1 in 2004-05. Significant improvements have also been made in the pupil teacher ratio at post-primary level at national level in recent years. The ratio has fallen from 16:1 in the 1996-97 school year to 13.4:1 in the 2004-05 school year. Aside from decreasing average class size at primary level, 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 new action plan for educational inclusion launched last May, there will be a reduction in class sizes of 24:1 at senior level and 20:1 at junior level in 180 primary schools serving communities with the highest concentrations of disadvantage. With more than 600 extra resource teachers put in place this 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.

There is more to be done to reduce class sizes further. 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, over the next two years, my Department will put 500 extra teachers into primary schools to reduce class size and to tackle disadvantage. This will be done by changing the staffing schedule. 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. 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 this will be reduced to 28 children per classroom teacher and in 2007-08 it will be reduced to 27 children per classroom teacher. We have consistently said that priority would be given to children in disadvantaged schools and those with special needs and we have done this. In line with the Government commitment, mainstream class sizes are also being reduced.