Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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169. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the dire situation in a school (details supplied) in relation to a shortage of classrooms; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that within the building there is adequate space for the additional classrooms needed but the school has been denied access to these rooms by her Department; if she will acknowledge that her Department did not follow its own buildings manual for appropriately sized classrooms; if she take the necessary action to alleviate the extremely concerning issues in the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24531/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The school under reference in Fermoy was established in 2018 under the patronage divestment process.

Fermoy was one of a number of areas surveyed in 2012/13 under the patronage divesting process, where there was sufficient parental demand supporting changes in school patronage. The areas surveyed were areas where demographics were not growing and therefore it was unlikely that a new multi-denominational school would be established for demographic reasons.

The clear policy on patronage divesting was to use existing educational infrastructure to facilitate provision of diversity in areas where there was no demographic imperative to establish new schools.

The reason for this approach was the imperative – equally valid now as it was then - to focus the schools capital programme on the provision of additional mainstream and special education school places at both primary and post-primary levels to ensure that every pupil can access a school place.

As part of the process of identifying a suitable accommodation solution which would facilitate the establishment of the school, the Department liaised with Cork Education and Training Board. In order to facilitate the establishment of the new school, the ETB agreed to the co-location of the Educate Together school at the former Technical School in Fermoy, together with some of the ETB’s Further Education and Training services.

Prior to the establishment of the new school in 2018 under the patronage divesting process, the Department and Educate Together, as school patron, agreed that given the accommodation available at the property and the need for the ETB to accommodate some Further Education and Training services from the property, the school would be established as a four-classroom school and that the school would maintain this configuration in the accommodation in the former Technical School unless an existing school building was freed up for use in the area.

As part of this engagement, the Department outlined to the school patron the importance of enrolments being managed within the available accommodation in a sustainable way and that this would be communicated to the school Board of Management so that parents could be fully informed and in order to manage expectations. However, the school has taken the decision to accept a significant increase in enrolments from 52 in the 2022/2023 school year to 85 in the 2023/2024 school year.

Individual school authorities are responsible, in the first instance, for ensuring the safety and welfare of children and others in their care. The configuration of classes and the deployment of classroom teachers are done at local school level. My department's guidance to schools is that the number of pupils in any class is kept as low as possible taking all relevant contextual factors into account, for example, classroom accommodation and fluctuating enrolments.

The role of my Department is to ensure that all schools in an area can, between them, cater to school place requirements in that area. The broader position in the Fermoy School Planning Area is that demographics at primary level are declining and will steadily decrease for the foreseeable future.

Officials in the Department of Education have been engaging with the school patron, Educate Together, in respect of the current and future needs of the school. A technical visit by the Department is planned and will be undertaken shortly.