Written answers
Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Department of Education and Skills
School Staff
Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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473. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the projected costs of reducing the staffing schedule for DEIS urban band 1 vertical schools to 16:1, DEIS urban band junior schools to 15:1, and DEIS urban band 1 senior schools to 19:1; and the cost for the 2025-26 school year, in tabular form. [46283/24]
Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provided for a one point improvement in the staffing schedule for DEIS Urban Band 1 schools for the 2021/22 school year, a further 1 point improvement for 2022/23 and Budget 2023 brought in a further 1 point reduction from September 2023.
This means that since September 2023 the staffing schedule for DEIS Urban Band 1 vertical schools is 19:1, DEIS Urban Band 1 junior schools is 17:1 and DEIS Urban Band 1 senior schools is 21:1.
It is estimated that each 1 point improvement in the staffing schedule for DEIS Urban Band 1 schools, would require an additional 70 teaching posts. The cost for each additional post is approximately €55,570.
The mainstream staffing schedule applies to all DEIS Urban Band 2 and DEIS Rural schools. For the three consecutive years my Department have brought in a measure to reduce class sizes for all schools, including DEIS Urban Band 2 and DEIS Rural schools, by lowering the staffing schedule and bringing it to an historic low of 23:1.
Any further improvement in the staffing schedule must be considered in the context of the annual budgetary process.
My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.
Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.
My Department allocates €180 million annually to support schools in the DEIS programme. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 260,000 students. This means 1 in 4 of all students are now supported in the programme.
Urban Band 1 | Current schedules | Proposed schedules | Net improvement | Estimated additional posts | Estimated cost |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
306 | 21:1 (Senior) 17:1 (Junior) 19:1 (Vertical) | 19:1 (Senior) 15:1 (Junior) 16:1 (Vertical) | 2 2 3 | 161 (across all UB1) | €8.94m |
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