Vol. 504 No. 7
47 Mrs. T. Ahearn asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, he has to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools; when he will guarantee equality of teacher resources between Irish schools and primary schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11679/99]
This Government has already reduced the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools. As part of this we are funding the first expansion in primary teacher numbers in many years.
While the pupil-teacher ratio serves a very useful function of indicating the relationship at national level between pupil numbers and teacher numbers, it does not accurately reflect the position in many classrooms. While there are schools which have a pupil teacher ratio while is lower than the national average, I equally accept that there are schools with a ratio which is higher than the national average.
The pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools now stands at 21:2. The Deputy will be aware from my recent announcement that I have introduced an improved staffing schedule for the 1999-2000 school year by allocating an additional 380 teaching posts to the primary sector. This will result in a further substantial reduction in the pupil teacher ratio.
I acknowledge that Gaelscoileanna enjoy a slightly more favourable overall pupil teacher ratio than that which applies in other mainstream primary schools. There are a variety of reasons for this and I do not have plans to change this.
