I apologise for the absence of the Minister or Education and I am glad to have the opportunity to speak to the House on this issue. I should emphasise that there will be no overall reduction in teaching posts in the next school year. Some schools are due to lose posts because their enrolments have declined. Other schools' enrolments are increasing and they will gain additional posts.
The number of teaching posts allocated to a primary school is determined in accordance with the staffing schedule. This schedule is drawn up every year in consultation with the education partners. The number of teachers to be allocated to each school is determined by reference to the enrolment figure of 30 September of the previous year. The Deputy has already made that point.
Hundreds of teaching posts which would have become surplus due to declining enrolments over the past number of years have instead been retained in the system. This has resulted in a steady improvement in the staffing schedule whereby numerous schools were able to retain teaching posts which they would otherwise have lost. As a consequence of these improvements the pupil-teacher ratio has now been reduced from 25.2:1 in 1993 to 22.9:1 in the school year just ended. A further reduction to 22.6:1 is anticipated from September next. In addition the maximum class size guidelines have been improved by four units over the same period.
Not all of the surplus teaching posts have been used to improve the staffing schedule in recent years. Dramatic improvements have also been implemented in special education and disadvantaged areas. In the past three years a total of 570 new posts have been targeted for pupils with the greatest needs. While these improvements had a significant impact on educational provision for these children the Minister is committed to taking further steps to ensure that all children can benefit fully from education. Therefore, this year the Minister has decided to use surplus posts, not to reduce staffing schedules as in the past two years but to implement the recommendations of the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre's report to break the cycle of education disadvantage. This will involve the allocation of additional teaching resources to the most disadvantaged schools in the primary school system.
Both urban and rural areas will be targeted. The programme supports will be made available to 25 large schools in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. In addition to being provided with a range of generous grants and other supports these schools will have a maximum of 15 pupils in all junior classes. Furthermore a special initiative will focus on rural schools with less than five teachers. Supports will be made available to 25 clusters of small schools, each cluster having a combined enrolment of some 300 to 350 pupils. Each of these clusters will be served by a newly appointed co-ordinator.
In addition a further 20 teaching posts will be used to extend the substitute supply panel scheme from September next. This scheme which was initiated in 1993, provides cover for teachers on absences of short duration and has been widely acknowledged as being very successful. The staffing schedule for the 1996 and 1997 school year therefore shows no change from the 1995 to 1996 schedule. It is accepted that this has caused disappointment, especially in the case of schools which are losing posts which might have been saved by small improvements in the staffing schedule. Nevertheless, the continuing difficulties in areas of particular disadvantage as highlighted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre report demand a positive and generous response. The Minister has responded to this demand by targetting all available resources on these areas this year.
The Minister acknowledges that there are particular difficulties associated with one teacher schools. Consequently, she has decided that any two teacher school which was due to lose a post at the end of the current school year and thus become a one teacher school will continue as a two teacher unit for the 1996-97 school year. This is a further indication of the Minister's determination to ensure that, in the allocation of limited resources, priority is given to those children who are in greatest need.