Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of pupils by class size range in 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 school years by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19227/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Data are given in the following table for the 2005/06 school year, the most recent year for which figures are available. Information in relation to class size is based on the annual census of primary schools. Data processing, validating and finalisation of the census for the current school-year (2006/07) is nearing completion. As usual, information on class size for each county for the academic year 2006/07 will be made available after the census has been finalised.

As the Deputy will be aware, major improvements have been made in staffing at primary level in recent years. There are now 5,000 more primary teachers than there were in 2002. By the 2005/06 school year, we had reduced the average class size in our primary schools to 24, while there was one teacher for every 17 pupils at primary level, including resource teachers etc. In that year, schools were staffed on the basis of a general rule of at least one classroom teacher for every 29 children. Given that the national average was 24, many schools benefited from much more favourable staffing ratios than this.

Extra teachers were provided by the Government in the 2006/07 school year to improve primary school staffing so that schools would generally get at least one classroom teacher for every 28 children. From September 2007, it will be improved further, to one for 27. Extra primary teachers will be put in place in each of the next few years so that by September 2010 the general position will be at least one classroom teacher for every 24 children.

A further initiative in recent years 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. The Government is committed to providing 4,000 more teachers to our primary schools over the next five years. 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.