Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I welcome the specific commitment in the Programme for Government to allocate additional resources to primary education. This has always been the most neglected sector in education. I say that as a former secondary teacher. In particular, I welcome the statement in the Programme for Government that:
The priorities of our policy will be: At primary level, a reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio to 22.1 by September 1996. No class should be bigger than 29 by then ...
This very positive commitment is in line with the statement, also on page 29 of the programme, that the Government regards education as the key to our future prosperity and to equal opportunities for all our citizens. I whole heartedly share that view and welcome the commitment to target resources at disadvantaged areas and groups. Indeed, the recent budget submission from the Irish National Teachers' Organisation centred solely on the needs of schools in disadvantaged areas.
In that context I wish to raise with the Minister the position of the Stanhope Street Convent national school, Manor Street, which serves a largely disadvantaged area of Dublin's north inner city. I attended a meeting in the school on Monday evening last and met members of the parents' association as well as teachers and the sisters who run the school. They are a dedicated and committed group working in the best interests of the 585 children who attend this highly regarded and extremely popular national school. While the number of infants enrolling in the school is increasing, the overall position is that the school is 18 pupils short of the quota of 603 required to retain its present staff level of 19 teachers. The real problem is in the junior classes where on average there are 35 to 36 children per class and these are mixed classes of boys and girls. While classes of 35 and 36 pupils are unacceptably large and must be examined, if the school loses a teacher it will directly affect the junior infant classes. It will be a teacher of junior infants who will be put on the transfer panel. If this happens class sizes could be as large as 47 or 48 children which would put an intolerable strain on the teachers and be extremely damaging to the education of the children. That would be the result in any school but it would have disastrous social effects in a school that caters for communities with high levels of unemployment and social disadvantage.
I am confident the Minister understands fully the implications the loss of a teacher would have for this school or indeed any school in a socially disadvantaged area. Despite the Minister's short time in office I hope she might give some indication of steps to preserve at the very least, the status quo in schools threateneed in the way I have outlined. This is an urgent matter because unless the Minister acts quickly a teacher will be put on the panel for transfer some time this month. If that happens it will destabilise and undermine the work of the school.
There is a strong case for increasing the number of teachers in Stanhope Street national school in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government and there is a special need for an additional remedial teacher in the school. The Minister is welcome to visit the school and see the great work carried out there and the need to maintain the present staffing level. The schoolgoing population in the local catchment area is increasing. The construction of a scheme of 150 new houses is about to start and a number of smaller schemes of new houses was built the past year. I hope the Minister will instruct the Department immediately not to place a teacher from Stanhope Street school on the transfer panel.
Similar difficulties are being experienced in the Central Model Infants School, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, which is, approximately, 15 pupils under the quota and also threatened with the loss of a teacher. The Minister is patron of that school. It is located in the grounds of her Department and serves an acutely disadvantaged community, perhaps the most disadvantaged in the State. I mention that school only in the hope the Minister will take special note of my comments and let me know if she can allay the concerns of the staff and parents of the school. I am confident that she will do that. I am not sure if the Minister has visited the school which is located only a few yards from her office. If not, I hope she will do so soon. While I have addressed my remarks to the Minister for Education, I appreciate that she cannot be here to reply and that my question will be answered by the Minister of State.
