Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 432: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress towards the objective of achieving class sizes of no more than 20 for children under the age of nine made during 2002 to 2007; if this continues to be an objective of the Government; her target for general class size at primary level for the new Government; and the number of teachers it will take to deliver this from within the overall 4,000 teachers promised. [26296/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, major improvements have been made in staffing at primary level in recent years. There are 5,000 more primary teachers than there were in 2002. By the 2006-07 school year, we had reduced the average class size in our primary schools to 24, while the pupil teacher ratio was 16.4:1, 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 28 children. Given that the national average was 24, many schools benefited from more favourable staffing ratios. Extra teachers were provided by the Government for the 2007-08 school year to improve primary school staffing so schools would generally get at least one classroom teacher for every 27 children. A further initiative in recent years that has been of direct benefit to primary schools has been the change in 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 350 such posts have been sanctioned in the 2007-08 school year compared to 280 in 2006-07. The improvements we have made in school staffing in recent years are unparalleled. The Government is committed to providing more teachers to primary schools over the next five years to reduce class sizes. We will continue our focus on measures to improve the quality of education in primary schools to ensure that increased resources lead to better outcomes for our children. In relation to staffing targets, the Deputy may be aware that the programme for Government contains a specific commitment to reduce the primary staffing schedule to a general rule of at least one classroom teacher for every 24 children. This would allow schools to have smaller classes for particular age groups if they wish.