Vol. 506 No. 4
17 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Education and Science the steps, if any, he will take to provide Corrandrum national school, Claregalway, County Galway, with the number of teachers required to achieve a satisfactory student-teacher ratio; if his attention has been drawn to the physical conditions of the school; the action, if any, he will take to improve the physical condition; and the timescale involved. [15517/99]
As the Deputy may be aware, the staffing of a national school for a particular year is determined by the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous year.
The enrolment of Corrandrum national school on 30 September 1998 was 87 pupils. This enrolment warrants a teaching staff of a principal and two mainstream class teachers for the 1999-2000 school year.
This is the same staffing which the school currently has for the 1998-99 school year.
I would like to point out to the Deputy that 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 which is lower than the national average, I equally accept that there are schools with a ratio which is higher than the national average.
The Deputy will be aware from my recent announcement regarding the staffing of national schools 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.
While the appointment figure for the third assistant teacher has been reduced in the new schedule, this reduction is not sufficient to allow Corrandrum national school to appoint an additional teacher to the school for the 1999-2000 school year.
My Department has received an application for additional accommodation from the board of management of this school. A member of the technical staff of my Department has inspected the school and arising from this inspection a report was required from a specialist firm concerning repairs to the ceiling. This report was submitted recently and is currently being examined by my Department's technical staff. As soon as the full extent of the repairs and other work has been determined, the necessary building work will be carried out as quickly as possible.
