Thomas Byrne
Question:13. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio across the school system. [31748/17]
View answerThursday, 6 July 2017
Questions (13)
Oral answers (4 contributions)
The question concerns the pupil-teacher ratio. I want to find out the Minister's plans to address this, knowing it is a key issue in the Irish education sector and knowing there is very little about in the Action Plan for Education. Nonetheless, it is a key condition of the confidence and supply agreement that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have entered into.
Between the school year just completed and the school year commencing in September, my Department will have provided 4,800 additional teachers across the school system. At primary level, 830 additional teachers have been allocated to meet demographic needs and a further 840 resource teachers and 300 teachers to reduce the staffing schedule by one point, which occurred last September. At post-primary level, 800 additional teachers have been allocated to meet demographic needs - an additional 660 second level resource teachers, 420 teachers in respect of school leadership, 400 teachers in respect of guidance and 550 teachers in respect of junior cycle professional time. It is expected that this additional allocation will improve the overall ratio of teacher to students when the statistics section of my Department releases the 2016-17 statistical data later in the year. The improvements made in budget 2016 improved the ratio of teachers to students from 16:1 to 15.7:1 at primary level and 14.1:1 to 13.7:1 at post-primary level.
The confidence and supply agreement and the programme for Government has a commitment to reduce class sizes at primary level and it is my intention to make further improvements to class sizes over the life of the Government. However, I recognise there are needs across the system which have to be balanced in the decisions made in each budget.
This is an issue that has been allowed to go off the boil politically for a little while but it has not gone off the boil in our schools across the country. This is a key demand of the INTO in particular and of the second level unions. Shockingly, 10,000 pupils are in primary level classes of over 35 students. That is incredible but it is a fact; that is what is happening on the ground.
The children in these super-sized classrooms receive an inferior education and there is no question about this. It is not because of the quality of the teaching, the ability of the teachers, or the students; it has to do with the fact that there is shocking overcrowding. We have to take steps towards addressing this. We have to give the pupils a better deal at school, and also give the teachers a fairer chance to do the job they love to do.
I agree. The reason I answered the question in the way I did was just to show we are putting teachers into the schools. Most Deputies are aware of the importance of the 1,500 additional resource teachers we have put in over the past two years. Deputy Carol Nolan just emphasised it. People recognise the importance of leadership and guidance, which Deputy Byrne has emphasised very often, and also the importance of resourcing junior cycle reform. I recognise exactly what the Deputy is saying, but I am trying to balance all these other needs within the school system. As I said, I recognise this is not only a very important issue, but also an issue within the confidence and supply agreement. We are seeing progressive improvement on all fronts and I hope we can sustain this in the coming years.
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