Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 386: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will urgently assist a school (details supplied) in Dublin 5 with extra staff in order to reduce its high pupil teacher ratio; and if she will support it on this matter. [39262/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that the staffing schedule for primary schools is structured to ensure that all primary schools will operate to an average mainstream class size of 28 pupils. Posts allocated on the basis of this schedule are specifically for mainstream classes and should be deployed accordingly. School authorities are requested to ensure that the number of pupils in any class is kept as low as possible, taking all relevant contextual factors into account (e.g. classroom accommodation, fluctuating enrolment). In particular, school authorities should ensure that there is an equitable distribution of pupils in mainstream classes and that the differential between the largest and smallest classes is kept to a minimum.

The staffing of the school referred to by the Deputy for the current school year is a Principal, 16 mainstream class teachers (based on an enrolment of 435 pupils on 30th September, 2005), 3 Permanent Learning Support/Resource teachers (1 of these is a shared post).

The enrolment figure submitted by the Board of Management for the 30th September, 2006 is 422 pupils. The average class size in the school this year is therefore 26.4.

The Deputy should note that when calculating the pupil teacher ratio, all posts based in the school, including ex-quota posts, are taken into consideration.