Pupil-Teacher Ratio.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 October 2007

Tuesday, 9 October 2007

Questions (343)

Joe Carey

Question:

425 Deputy Joe Carey asked the Minister for Education and Science if she will present a report on class size for primary schools throughout the State on a county basis; her plans to reduce class size to no more than twenty pupils per class for all children under nine years of age; and ifshe will make a statement on the matter. [22829/07]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Science (Deputy Mary Hanafin)

The information requested by the Deputy is included in the table for the 2006/2007 school year. As the Deputy will be aware, major improvements have been made in staffing at primary level in recent years. There are now 5,000 more primary teachers than there were in 2002. By the 2006/07 school year, we had reduced the average class size in our primary schools to 24, while the pupil teacher ratio was 16.4:1, including resource teachers etc. In that year, schools were staffed on the basis of a general rule of at least one classroom teacher for every 28 children. Given that the national average was 24, many schools benefited from much more favourable staffing ratios than this.

Extra teachers were provided by the Government for the 2007/08 school year to improve primary school staffing so that schools would generally get at least one classroom teacher for every 27 children.

A further initiative in recent years that has been of direct benefit to primary schools has been the change in the criteria for developing schools. For the current school year the threshold for getting a developing school post was reduced specifically to help schools that are seeing large increases in enrolments each year. Over 350 such posts have been sanctioned in the 2007/08 school year compared to 280 in 2006/07.

The improvements we have made in school staffing in recent years are absolutely unparalleled. The Government is committed to providing more teachers to our primary schools over the next five years. We will also continue our focus on measures to improve the quality of education in our primary schools to ensure that increased resources lead to better outcomes for our children.

Average Class Size By County 2006/2007

County	Total Pupils	No. Classes	Average Class Size
Carlow	5,836	229	25.5
Cavan	8,040	335	24.0
Clare	12,113	518	23.4
Cork City	13,655	598	22.8
Cork County	38,108	1,536	24.8
Donegal	17,684	767	23.1
Dublin City	40,891	1,798	22.7
Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown	15,678	613	25.6
Fingal	25,925	970	26.7
Galway City	5,981	261	22.9
Galway County	18,052	828	21.8
Kerry	14,749	633	23.3
Kildare	23,221	875	26.5
Kilkenny	9,576	383	25.0
Laois	7,577	306	24.8
Leitrim	3,147	144	21.9
Limerick City	6,329	280	22.6
Limerick County	13,654	564	24.2
Longford	3,859	177	21.8
Louth	13,866	546	25.4
Mayo	13,377	628	21.3
Meath	19,707	764	25.8
Monaghan	6,365	274	23.2
Offaly	8,995	366	24.6
Roscommon	6,428	309	20.8
Sligo	6,572	290	22.7
South Dublin	27,263	1,110	24.6
Tipperary N.R.	7,566	323	23.4
Tipperary S.R.	9,435	400	23.6
Waterford City	5,606	221	25.4
Waterford County	6,886	278	24.8
Westmeath	9,553	395	24.2
Wexford	15,618	625	25.0
Wicklow	14,143	565	25.0
Total	455,455	18,909