I wish to raise the issue of the urgent need for funding for two extra classrooms at Ransboro national school, County Sligo. Ransboro national school was built as a six teacher school in 1979-80. In 1985 increased numbers warranted the appointment of a seventh permanent teacher who has been accommodated since then in what was built as a library-medical room and which the divisional school inspector readily acknowledges is unsuitable and inadequate as a classroom.
In 1993 the school was granted the services of a remedial teacher on a 50 per cent shared basis. To facilitate the remedial teacher, teachers were obliged to sacrifice the staffroom, which measures 12 feet by 12 feet, has two entrance doors and houses all the remedial teacher's furniture and teaching aids, including a computer. The Minister will appreciate that a room of that size cannot accommodate a remedial teacher nor meet the needs of a staffroom which are 50 per cent greater than that for which it was designed.
In May 1998 the school secured the services of a part-time secretary for whom no office accommodation is available. At present the school has 195 pupils on the roll. It expects this number to increase dramatically in the next few years. Of seven permanent full-time teachers, four are young and newly appointed and feel aggrieved at not having access to a staffroom, which they believe is rightfully theirs.
The school does not have a principal's office nor a room where the principal or any other teacher can talk in private with a parent. In addition, the school has an acute storage problem and costly teaching aids, not financed by the Department of Education and Science such as televisions, videos and computers, must remain in the classroom at all times, even during the holidays. Unfortunately, the school has been broken into twice in the last six weeks.
These problems would be solved by the immediate construction of two additional classrooms, one to facilitate the teacher who has been confined to the library-medical room since 1985 and the other to accommodate the remedial teacher. I understand the Department's divisional inspector supports that proposal.
The Department has been very negative regarding the school's development. In the 1970s, prior to sanctioning the present school, it vigorously opposed the provision of a new school and the maintenance of the existing school on the basis that there was no justification or need for a school in the parish. There was a similar negative attitude to the appointment of a seventh permanent teacher, a remedial teacher and to the request for the appointment of a secretary.
The position in Ransboro national school is very serious. The teachers and the pupils do not have the facilities to which they are entitled and I ask the Minister to ensure the necessary funding is provided in the Department's budget for 1999 so that construction of two classrooms can start as a matter of urgency.
