Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 253: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he is committed to reducing the pupil teacher ratio to 20:1 for primary schools (details supplied) in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4588/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The mainstream staffing of a primary school for a particular school year is determined by reference to the enrolment of the school on the 30th September of the previous school year and by reference to a staffing schedule. This staffing schedule for the 2006/07 school year is outlined in Primary Circular 0023/2006 which was issued to all primary schools.

In the current school year (2006/07) the staffing of the school referred to by the Deputy comprises of a Principal and seven mainstream class teaching posts, based on an enrolment of 180 pupils at 30th September, 2005 as submitted by the Board of Management of the school. The school also has the services of 1 Permanent Learning Support/ Resource teacher post and 1 Shared Permanent Learning Support/Resource post.

The Board of Management has submitted a report indicating that there were 164 pupils enrolled in the school on the 30th September 2006. The mainstream staffing of the school for the 2007/08 school year will be determined on that figure and in accordance with the staffing schedule for the 2007/2008 school year which will be finalised as soon as possible.

Major improvements have been made in staffing at primary level in recent years. At the beginning of the current school year there are no less than 4000 extra teachers in our primary schools, compared with 2002. 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.

Children with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas are getting more support than ever before to help them to make the most of their time at school.

Indeed, with the thousands of extra primary teachers hired by this Government, recent years have seen the largest expansion in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education. Furthermore, the Government is committed to providing even more primary teachers next year to reduce class sizes.

As you know, all primary schools are staffed on a general rule of at least one classroom 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 (2007/2008 school year) this is being reduced to 27 children per classroom teacher.

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.

A further initiative that has been of direct benefit to primary schools has been the change in the criteria for developing schools. For the current school year the threshold for getting a developing school post was reduced specifically to help schools that are seeing large increases in enrolments each year. Over 280 such posts were sanctioned in the 2006-07 school year compared to 170 in 2005/06.

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.