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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 28 May 1998

Vol. 491 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - School Staffing.

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.

Táim lánsásta eolas agus freagra a chur faoi bhráid na Dála faoin' scoileanna san i mBaile Átha Cliath.

It is important to emphasise that the withdrawal of teaching posts in primary schools arises in virtually every case because of enrolment decline. The unfortunate reality of the matter is that the two schools to which the Deputy refers have both experienced enrolment decline and it is because of this factor alone that decisions have been taken to withdraw posts at the schools. The staffing of primary schools is determined by the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous school year. An agreement to this effect was made between the Government and the INTO in the 1980s, and this agreement has been fully and rigorously adhered to since then. It is a standard situation that does not deviate or change. It is fair and equitable.

St. Laurence O'Toole girls' national school had an enrolment in September 1996 of 96 pupils. However, by September 1997 the enrolment at the school had dropped to 83 pupils. The minimum enrolment required by the school to retain the third teaching post is 87, some four points above that which the school actually had.

The authorised staffing at the school for the 1998-9 school year is a principal and two teaching posts, a full time remedial teaching post and a concessionary post because of the school's designation as a disadvantaged school. In addition, the school has the services of a teacher counsellor and a home-school-community liaison co-ordinator.

While I am mindful that the school serves a community which has many problems, the facts are that there has been substantial enrolment decline at the school and the overall staffing level at the school is, in relative terms, quite good. For these reasons, I cannot authorise the retention of the third teaching post at the school.

That is a shame.

Turning to the Central Model senior mixed school, as the Deputy is aware this school is one of 33 urban schools participating in the Breaking the Cycle pilot project. The Breaking the Cycle project was introduced in 1996.

One of the main elements of the urban dimension of Breaking the Cycle was the implementation of a 15:1 pupil-teacher ratio in the junior classes of all schools included in the project. Since the introduction of the project, all the selected schools have been allocated sufficient staffing resources to ensure that a maximum class size of 15 pupils applies in all junior classes. The allocation of teaching resources to schools participating in the Breaking the Cycle project is also determined by reference to the school's enrolment at 30 September of the previous school year.

The enrolment of Central Model senior mixed school on 30 September 1997 was 108 pupils, down from 114 the previous year. An enrolment of 108 warrants a staffing complement of principal and three teachers. However, in addition to this staffing, the school also has the services of a full-time remedial teacher, a shared remedial teacher, a full-time disadvantaged concessionary teacher, a shared home-school-liaison teacher, a shared teaching counsellor and a special additional assistant.

The school's September 1997 enrolment of 108 pupils is capable of being managed adequately within the maximum class size guidelines, including the 15:1 maximum class size guideline which applies to schools participating in the Breaking the Cycle pilot project. In the circumstances, the staffing levels being made available to the school would appear to be adequate. However, I will arrange for a member of the Department's inspectorate to visit the school as soon as possible to assess the school's overall needs.

I have listened to Deputy Gregory with great interest. He made great play of the fact that the previous Government gave Breaking the Cycle status to one school and not the other. Is the Government to be lambasted for what the previous Government introduced——

The Minister of State should think of a better way than that.

——by way of positive discrimination for one school and negative discrimination for another?

This Government extended the scheme.

This Government has invested more money in education than any previous Administration. I commend Deputy Gregory for representing these schools. I assure him that in view of his raising the matter, I will ask the Department to take a special interest in these schools and to have a Department inspector make an assessment to make as positive and fair a decision as possible bearing in mind the problems raised by the Deputy. I am from rural Ireland and my child's small rural national school lost a teacher because the numbers were down. Some of the pupils of that school must travel ten miles for classes so I understand the Deputy's situation. I will do my best to improve that situation as soon as possible.

The Dáil adjourned at 6.35 p.m. until 2.30 p.m., on Wednesday, 3 June 1998.

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