asked the Minister for Education whether in questionnaires sent by his Department to secondary schools information is sought that would enable him to assess the proportion of classes containing more than a certain stated number of pupils; and, if so, whether he will publish information on this subject derived from these questionnaires.
Ceisteanna—Questions, Oral Answers. - Size of School Classes.
81.
No questionnaires are sent by my Department to secondary schools seeking specific information on the proportion of classes containing more than a stated number of pupils. It must be appreciated that the pupils enrolled in a particular year of the course in a secondary school may be organised in class groups of varying sizes for instruction in different subjects of the curriculum.
Does the Minister not consider it rather extraordinary that the Department of Education has not as yet asked the schools the number of pupils being taught, either subject by subject or class by class in each school? The Minister must accept that this elementary information is very desirable. I do not fault the Minister.
I take full responsibility for my replies here. This would be a very big exercise. It would take a very considerable amount of time to find out the numbers in each class, subject by subject. There is, I think, enough paper work being done in both the schools and the Department without adding to it further. We are getting the statistics necessary on which to base future policy. These are available to us.
Certainly there is plenty of paper work, but it depends on the right kind of paper work and the right kind of question. It is a matter of paramount importance that we should be able to assess the proportion of secondary schools containing more than a stated number of pupils.
I think the Deputy put his finger on it when he said it depends on the right kind of question. I am afraid that is what is happening here; we are not always asked the right kind of question.