Go raibh maith agat an deis seo a thabhairt dom an ceist thábhachtach as seo a tharraingt anuas. There is something seriously wrong with the manner in which schools are informed at the end of the school year that they are about to lose teachers. The system is particularly damaging in socially disadvantaged areas. It appears the number of teachers allocated to each school is based on the pupil intake at the start of the previous school year. If numbers fall in any one year, the school concerned can lose a teacher and that leads to extraordinary anomalies.
The Central Model infants school in Marlborough Street, Dublin 1 had an intake of 72 pupils last September. During the course of the school year that number increased to 74 and the projected intake in September 1998 will bring the number up to 77 or more. That school received a letter from the Minister's Department this week instructing it that one of its two teacher posts allocated at the commencement of the Breaking the Cycle pilot scheme will be suppressed with effect from 31 August 1998. That school did not have the required number of pupils last year, but it will have a sufficient number in September 1998 to retain that teacher. However, despite that it will lose that teacher. This system must be changed.
The letter stated this decision was determined by the 72 pupils enrolled in the school on 30 September 1997. That school was selected for inclusion in the Breaking the Cycle scheme. It is officially regarded by the Department of the Minister of State as one that provides for children who are among the most disadvantaged in the State. I commend the previous Government for that desperately needed and most welcome initiative in providing education for the disadvantaged, but I deplore the current crude attempt to dismantle such a valuable and worthy scheme.
To make matters worse, if the Minister does not act, that school will lose a committed teacher and a valued member of staff this year and when the number will have increased next year it will have to advertise and appoint a new teacher. That unnecessary disruption would be unhelpful in any school but that school, which is in a socially deprived inner city community where many of the children come from desperately deprived environments, has no chance of properly providing for their needs. That school is in the Department's back yard. If the Minister of State were to look out the window of his office he would see it. He might call to the school to check the position and then he could address this matter.
A second school, the local senior mixed model school, is facing a similar plight. In September 1997 it had an intake of 97 pupils and the projected intake for September 1998 is 104 pupils, yet it is caught in the same trap. If that school loses a teacher this August, it will be impossible to meet its obligations under the Breaking the Cycle scheme, which requires a pupil-teacher ratio of 1:15 in second class. When the school authorities brought that to the attention of the Department in the past week or so, it was told to allocate two teachers to fulfil its Breaking the Cycle obligation in second class. That would result in three teachers teaching 81 pupils, a pupil-teacher ratio of 1:27. What chance would those children who come from the Sean MacDermott Street area of Dublin 1 have in such circumstances? None. Is it any wonder there is a heroin epidemic in this community? The Minister of State may not be aware that the gateway to heroin is social disadvantage and that is fuelled by inadequate and unequal educational opportunities.
A third school, serving the Sheriff Street community, St. Laurence O'Toole senior girls' school, has also been told in the past week that it must lose a teacher this year, even though its projected intake for September 1998 shows a significant increase in the number of pupils. That school was the only one in the Sheriff Street area to miss out on the Breaking the Cycle scheme. Its sister schools catering for children from the same community were included. The senior girls' school was hoping to benefit from an extension of the scheme in the coming year, but instead it will suffer even further disadvantage by losing a badly needed teacher. That is appalling.
I appeal to the Minister of State to ensure that no school in the circumstances to which I referred loses a teacher. Those schools make great efforts to build up a dedicated teacher-pupil relationship, yet the Department, which should be encouraging such a relationship, does not appear to care. Its action will have a devastating effect on the good work being done.