Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when she expects to address the issue of class sizes in all schools here in line with international best practice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13579/08]

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 now in the region of 6,000 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 than this. Extra teachers were provided by the Government for the 2007-08 school year to improve primary school staffing so that schools would generally get at least one classroom teacher for every 27 children. Significant improvements have been made in the pupil teacher ratio at post primary level in recent years. The ratio has fallen from 16:1 in the 1996/97 school year to13.13 :1 in the 2006/07 school year. The Government has made provision for approximately 1,200 extra primary and post-primary teachers to be appointed in the next school year. The Deputy will be aware that Budget 2008 provided €4.6 billion or €380 million extra for teacher pay and pensions. This is a substantial level of additional investment in the current economic environment and reflects the huge improvements that have been made in school staffing in recent years.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to provide 4,000 additional primary teachers between 2007 and 2012. With the extra teachers already put in place this year and those provided for in the Budget, we are ahead of target with about 2,000 extra primary teachers to be delivered within just two years. As I have said on many occasions in the past, high quality teachers are by far the most important ingredient in our education system. Over the lifetime of the Government, we are committed to providing more primary school teachers specifically to reduce class sizes. 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.