The information requested by the Deputy for the 2000-01 school year is not available as the data in respect of pupil enrolments has not yet been submitted by all schools to my Department.
The Government since taking up office has introduced a range of initiatives to help reduce the pupil teacher ratio in primary schools. The pupil/teacher ratio has declined from 22.2 to 1 in the 1996-97 school year to 20.4 to 1 in the 1999-2000 school year.
The retention of posts arising from the demographic dividend in the current year together with the creation of an additional 200 posts primarily to tackle educational disadvantage will help further to reduce the pupil/teacher ratio in the 2000/2001 school year.
An additional 1,000 teaching posts are being allocated at second level in the 2000-01 school year. A proportion of these posts were provided to facilitate the reduction from 19:1 to 18:1 in the pupil teacher ratio for appointment purposes.