Written answers

Thursday, 25 May 2006

Department of Education and Science

School Enrolments

5:00 pm

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the measures which are in place to ensure that all the children in the Dublin west area will have a school place in September 2006; her plans to address the huge overcrowding in schools in that part of Dublin where more than half of the pupils are in classes larger than 30; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19886/06]

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I have stated publicly on a number of occasions that I am acutely aware that Dublin 15 is one of the most rapidly developing areas in the country and, that as a result, there has been a marked increase in the demand for primary school places.

I have also outlined the significant interventions being made by my Department to tackle this issue. These include measures to increase the capacity of existing schools along with the development of new schools to meet the growing demand. All building projects arising from these interventions are awarded a band 1 priority rating under my Department's prioritisation criteria for large scale building projects which means that they will be delivered in the fastest time frame possible.

In the Littlepace/Castaheaney area a new school building has recently been completed at Mary Mother of Hope National School, with an additional project underway with a target delivery date of September 2007. In addition, a new primary school campus is planned for a school site in Ongar which will have a minimum of 32 classrooms. Part of this project will provide a permanent accommodation solution for Castaheaney Educate Together National School. This project also has a target completion date of September 2007.

Over and above this provision significant additional school places will be available this coming September through the expansion of existing provider's facilities. In this regard, Castaheaney Educate Together NS will take an additional class of junior infants and a completely new primary school will commence operation under the Patronage of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. These two developments alone will greatly ease the pressure on school places in the area.

In the Diswellstown area, St. Patrick's National School has recently moved into a new 24 classroom school. This will facilitate an annual 3 stream intake. As an exceptional measure the Board of Management has agreed to take a fourth stream of Junior infants this year. In addition to this, the Board of Management of St. Mochta's National School, which currently has an intake of 3 junior infant classes, has agreed to enrol a fourth Junior Infant class for September 2006. An extension project to cater for this development will also be expedited.

Other developments in the Dublin 15 area include the planned expansion of St. Brigid's National School in Castleknock and extensions to St. Brigid's Boys and Girls National Schools, Blanchardstown. In Tyrrellstown, a new Educate Together school opened in September 2005. My Department has approved the provision of six additional classrooms for September 2006 to cater for new enrolments and Special Education Teachers. It is anticipated that this school will enrol three junior infant classes.

My Department will also be providing additional accommodation for St. Ciaran's National school in Hartstown to cater for its accommodation needs for next September and it will be looking at the long term requirements of the school to provide it with permanent accommodation as quickly as possible.

With regard to class sizes the position is that 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 educational 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, over the next 2 years, my Department will put 500 extra teachers into primary schools to reduce class size and to tackle disadvantage.

The mainstream staffing of a primary school is determined by reference to the enrolment of the school on the 30th 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. At present 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 this is being reduced to 28 children per classroom teacher and in 2007/2008 it will be reduced to 27 children per classroom teacher.

In speaking about staffing in our schools, we have consistently said that priority would be given in the first instance to children in disadvantaged schools and those with special needs. We have done this. And now, in line with the Government commitment, mainstream class sizes are also being reduced.

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