Written answers

Tuesday, 28 November 2006

Department of Education and Science

School Staffing

10:00 am

Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 114: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress she expects to make in the 2006-2007 school year to fulfil the commitment in the Programme for Government in relation to children under nine; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40155/06]

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, there are now no less than 4,000 extra teachers in our primary schools, compared with 2002. Furthermore, there are nearly 7,000 more primary teachers than there were in 1997. This represents the largest increase in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education. The average class size in our primary schools is 24 and there is now one teacher for 17 pupils at primary level, including resource teachers etc.

In recent years, priority has rightly been given to providing extra support for children with special needs, those from disadvantaged areas and those that need help with their English. Special education provision in particular has undergone a level of expansion the extent of which nobody could have predicted a few years ago, and this was only right. If we had put all 4,000 of the teachers hired since 2002 into classroom teaching, our average class size would be a lot smaller than it is now, but we would have done a great disservice to those children who need extra help the most. I am sure the Deputy would accept that we have taken the right approach.

Now that children with special needs are finally getting the support they deserve, we are providing extra teachers this year and next specifically to reduce class sizes, through a reduction in the mainstream staffing schedule. This has meant that, whereas all primary schools were staffed on a general rule of at least one classroom teacher for every 29 children in the 05/06 school year, in the current school year there is a general rule of at least one teacher for every 28 children. 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 28 children in the school. Next year, we are committed to hiring even more extra teachers in order to reduce this to a general rule of at least one teacher for every 27 children.

We also acted this year to specifically address the needs of growing schools by making it easier to qualify for a developing school post. Over 280 such posts were sanctioned for the 2006/07 school year, compared to 170 in 2005/06. This change specifically addressed the needs of schools which are seeing large increases in their enrolments year on year.

The improvements we have made in school staffing in recent years are absolutely unparalleled but we are determined to go even further, and so the 2007 Estimates include provision for another 800 primary teachers. About 500 of these will be classroom teachers, which includes our commitment to reduce class sizes.

I assure the Deputy that we will continue to prioritise further improvements in school staffing going forward. We will also continue our focus on measures to improve the quality of education in our primary schools to ensure that increased resources lead to better outcomes for our children.

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