Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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455. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to reduce primary school class sizes to 19 pupils. [32655/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Under the Programme for Government there is a commitment to aim to reduce the general pupil teacher ratio at primary level to 19:1 over the term of government and introduce targeted measures in schools with very large classes.

This will build on the progress which has been made by the previous Government. The general average of pupils to teachers in the Primary Staffing Schedule improved from 26:1 five years ago to 23:1 for the current school year; the lowest ever ratio at primary level. Average class sizes in primary schools have improved from 24.1 to 22.5 in that time, while the ratio of pupils to teachers has improved from 15:1 to 12.8:1, through the investment we are making in schools.

I am considering how best to make further progress as part of the annual budgetary process in reducing the primary pupil teacher ratio in the context of Programme for Government implementation.