Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 4 Jul 1996

Vol. 468 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Primary School Teachers.

Mr. McGrath

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the important issue of primary school teacher reductions on the Adjournment. About 300 teachers in primary schools will have to move out of their schools because of demographic trends. This has come about this year in particular because the Minister has failed to improve the pupil-teacher ratio. A very small improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio this year would have made a tremendous difference to many of those teachers who would not have to move from one school to another.

I neglected to say that I wish to share my time with Deputy Browne.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Mr. McGrath

I commend the Minister for the good work she has done in recent years. The pupil-teacher ratio has improved fairly dramatically over the past four or five years, but it is a mistake not to continue that improvement, particularly this year. Despite all the efforts of the Minister and the Government we still have the highest pupil-teacher ratio in Europe and I regret this.

I am led to believe that this year the Minister did not enter into discussions with the unions on this issue. I am told there was no discussion about the announcement or the plans to be put in place. That is poor management on her behalf and I would regret it if she was to ignore the unions in this regard.

There are currently 309 schools which have disadvantaged status. Some 25 of those are to be plucked out and given special status. They are in urban areas and will have extra staff resources available to them. Some 25 rural clusters are also to get special help. I am told that their pupil-teacher ratio will not improve but they may have the use of a visiting teacher. I question whether that will make any real difference to those clusters of schools.

I also question the method of declaring a school disadvantaged. We have encountered cases where in the same town a boy's school, for example, may be declared disadvantaged while the girl's school is not. It does not make sense and this question must be resolved carefully. The major criterion which should be used in assessing disadvantage is educational disadvantage rather than social disadvantage. Educational disadvantage is a much fairer way of assessment and one can find educational disadvantage where one does not have social disadvantage. This area should be examined.

I wish to draw to the Minister's attention the situation in Fore National School in County Westmeath. Up to now that has been a three teacher school, but on 30 September last they were two pupils short of the quota needed to retain their third teacher. However, within two weeks of 30 September they had those two pupils and are now facing this year with 60 pupils and two teachers. They had subdivided a classroom to accommodate the other teacher but that subdivision will have to be taken down.

The sad feature is that next year they will have the numbers for three teachers and will have to put up this partition again and reinvent the wheel in terms of creating three classrooms. They have not been able to use the remedial teacher assigned to them because they do not have the extra space. It is disappointing that Fore National School will lose their teacher this year. I hope, even at this late stage, that the Minister might do something about it. In the larger urban schools a very small improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio achieved something.

Balloting has taken place in about 100 schools around the country and strike action has already taken place in two of those schools. I hope the Minister, even at this late stage, will intervene and prevent an industrial dispute on this matter.

Mr. Browne

(Carlow-Kilkenny): I thank Deputy McGrath for allowing me time to support his call. When a school loses a teacher due to the shortage of one, two or three pupils it is automatically at a disadvantage because two teachers will be doing the work of three or three will be doing the work of four. While we have plans for disadvantaged schools, the retention of teachers where they are short one or two pupils might prevent further disadvantage.

Minister of State at the Department of Tourism and Trade (Mr. O'Sullivan)

I apologise for the absence of the Minister or Education and I am glad to have the opportunity to speak to the House on this issue. I should emphasise that there will be no overall reduction in teaching posts in the next school year. Some schools are due to lose posts because their enrolments have declined. Other schools' enrolments are increasing and they will gain additional posts.

The number of teaching posts allocated to a primary school is determined in accordance with the staffing schedule. This schedule is drawn up every year in consultation with the education partners. The number of teachers to be allocated to each school is determined by reference to the enrolment figure of 30 September of the previous year. The Deputy has already made that point.

Hundreds of teaching posts which would have become surplus due to declining enrolments over the past number of years have instead been retained in the system. This has resulted in a steady improvement in the staffing schedule whereby numerous schools were able to retain teaching posts which they would otherwise have lost. As a consequence of these improvements the pupil-teacher ratio has now been reduced from 25.2:1 in 1993 to 22.9:1 in the school year just ended. A further reduction to 22.6:1 is anticipated from September next. In addition the maximum class size guidelines have been improved by four units over the same period.

Not all of the surplus teaching posts have been used to improve the staffing schedule in recent years. Dramatic improvements have also been implemented in special education and disadvantaged areas. In the past three years a total of 570 new posts have been targeted for pupils with the greatest needs. While these improvements had a significant impact on educational provision for these children the Minister is committed to taking further steps to ensure that all children can benefit fully from education. Therefore, this year the Minister has decided to use surplus posts, not to reduce staffing schedules as in the past two years but to implement the recommendations of the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre's report to break the cycle of education disadvantage. This will involve the allocation of additional teaching resources to the most disadvantaged schools in the primary school system.

Both urban and rural areas will be targeted. The programme supports will be made available to 25 large schools in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. In addition to being provided with a range of generous grants and other supports these schools will have a maximum of 15 pupils in all junior classes. Furthermore a special initiative will focus on rural schools with less than five teachers. Supports will be made available to 25 clusters of small schools, each cluster having a combined enrolment of some 300 to 350 pupils. Each of these clusters will be served by a newly appointed co-ordinator.

In addition a further 20 teaching posts will be used to extend the substitute supply panel scheme from September next. This scheme which was initiated in 1993, provides cover for teachers on absences of short duration and has been widely acknowledged as being very successful. The staffing schedule for the 1996 and 1997 school year therefore shows no change from the 1995 to 1996 schedule. It is accepted that this has caused disappointment, especially in the case of schools which are losing posts which might have been saved by small improvements in the staffing schedule. Nevertheless, the continuing difficulties in areas of particular disadvantage as highlighted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre report demand a positive and generous response. The Minister has responded to this demand by targetting all available resources on these areas this year.

The Minister acknowledges that there are particular difficulties associated with one teacher schools. Consequently, she has decided that any two teacher school which was due to lose a post at the end of the current school year and thus become a one teacher school will continue as a two teacher unit for the 1996-97 school year. This is a further indication of the Minister's determination to ensure that, in the allocation of limited resources, priority is given to those children who are in greatest need.