Seventy-three small primary schools were originally due to lose a classroom teacher in September 2012 as a result of the budget measure to increase the relevant pupil thresholds. The affected schools were given the right of appeal to the Primary Staffing Appeal Board in the event that they could show that their projected enrolments for September 2012 were sufficient to allow them retain their classroom teacher over the longer term. 63 of these schools submitted an appeal. 20 were refused, 43 were provisionally upheld of which 14 subsequently lost their posts as projected enrolment did not materialise. The saving achieved in the current school year was of the order of €2.6m, including employer PRSI.
The allocation process for the 2013/14 school year is currently underway in my Department and the staffing arrangements, including the appeals process, for primary schools will be published on the Department website shortly. The final staffing position for all schools will not be known until later in the year when the allocation process will be fully completed and all appeals to the Staffing Appeal Board will have been considered.
In these extremely challenging times, all public servants are being asked to deliver our public services on a reduced level of resources and teachers in small schools cannot be immune from this requirement.
