asked the Minister for Education if his attention has been drawn to an article entitled The Small School Controversy in the official journal of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland in which the author points out that the latest British practice in primary schooling is to break up large town schools into village units with one teacher taking a number of small classes made up of pupils from the same neighbourhood; and if he will have further inquiries made in this connection before he proceeds further with a reverse process here to what is now classed as educational practice in Britain.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - British Primary School Practice.
74.
This article is apparently based on a recent report of an experiment being carried out in one centre in Britain. There is not and never was any question of building mammoth national schools here and so the experiment has no relevance as far as this country is concerned. In fact what would be achieved here as a result of the amalgamation of schools would be simply less of what would still be classed as very small schools by British standards.