asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development the time-scale over which the improvements in the education scheme outlined in the White Paper on National Development will be phased.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Education Scheme.
5.
As stated in the White Paper, the estimated number of additional primary teachers that will be required to improve the pupil/teacher ratio so that, with proper organisation, the number of pupils in any one class would not be more than 40, is 1,600. In the school year 1978-79, about 600 primary teachers, additional to those required to maintain the existing complement of teachers, will become available.
About half of the 600 will be graduates specially recruited in 1977 and now receiving one year training; the remainder of the 600 will be teachers trained in the normal way in the training colleges. It is expected that in the school year 1979-80 and in succeeding years, the training colleges will produce 300 teachers additional to those needed to maintain existing numbers. On this basis, the great bulk of the 1,600 teachers needed to reduce the numbers in all classes to 40 would be available in 1981-82.
Of course if the special scheme for training graduates is continued beyond the current year, the 1,600 additional teachers would be available sooner.
Is the Minister now giving to the House a firm commitment that there will be no classes of more than 40 by 1981-2?
Yes, on the basis of present trends and expectations.
Did the Minister say that 600 extra teachers will be available in the current school year.
At the end of the current year.
Are they the 600 teachers to whom the Minister for Education referred shortly after coming into office?
I said in my reply that about half of the 600 will be graduates specially recruited in 1977 and now receiving one year of training.
Would the Minister agree that the Minister for Education said that he would recruit an extra 600 in the current year?
That is an extra 600; 300 through what we might call normal expansion and 300 through a special scheme.
Are these 300 through normal expansion, as the Minister terms it, not people who have been in training colleges for at least two years?
Would the Deputy care to table Questions about educational policy? I am not going to start answering questions for the Minister for Education. I will deal with general questions of educational policy.
You referred to the figure of 600 and you broke that into two parts. I want to find out whether the 300 which you and the Minister for Education were claiming credit for were not included for training in 1975.
I did not inquire into the precise date when these people were——
You did not get it out of a Christmas cracker.
I am calling Question No. 6.
I presume so.
Therefore, the people——
We will not have an argument, Deputy.
The figure of 600——
Does the Minister for Economic Planning and Development agree that one and one make three?