This article is from page 4 of the 2006-10-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE Irish National Teachers Organisation says it’s a ‘scandal’ that over 3,000 primary school children in Clare are in classes of over 30 with Central Executive representative, Declan Kelleher adding that the Clare figures make for ‘sorry reading’.
The Corofin INTO leader said the further admission that there are another 3,500 primary pupils in classes of up to 29 at primary school level shows how little has been achieved in reducing class sizes to a level which is consistent with the demands of the THE Government has admitted that there are over 3,000 Clare children in primary school classes with 30 pupils or more.
In response to a Dáil question from Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, Education Minister, Mary Hanafin revealed that out of the 11,793 primary school pupils in Clare, 3,157 are currently in new primary school curriculum.”
“Most of the 3,500 pupils are in classes of between 25 and 29 and many of the pupils in the classes of over 30 pupils are in multiclasses where the pupil is frequently in a room with pupils from three or four other classes.
“Multiclass teaching is highly specialised and under no circumstances should any multi-class have more than 20 pupils.
“In fact, the Government promised that by 2007 all primary pupils in Infants, first and second classes would be in classes of no more than 20. classes of 30 or more.
The Minister also revealed that there were 6,746 pupils in classes of between 20 and 30 pupils.
Stating that there had been major improvements in this area, she said the average primary school class size was 24 and there was now one teacher for 17 pupils at primary level, including resource teachers.
“Children with special needs and
“6,500 primary pupils in Clare have been badly let down by Minister Hanafin and left in classes which are far too high and way outside the benchmark of 20 pupils per teacher at primary level.
“The Minister states that there is now one teacher for every 17 pupils at primary level.
“This is grossly misleading as she is including teachers whom the government has been forced to employ to teach children with special education needs in mainstream schools.
“In some instances, her Department had to be dragged through the those from disadvantaged areas are getting more support than ever and with thousands of extra primary teachers, recent years have seen the largest expansion in teacher numbers since the expansion of free education.
“Over the next two school years even more teachers will be put in place both for priority areas of disadvantage and special education and courts before these supports were put in place.
“To use these appointments to attempt to “gloss up” the total failure to make any significant impact on class size is extremely misleading.
“The INTO will soon publish the results of a comprehensive study of class sizes in Clare.
“This will give exact data on class sizes in every part of the county and will highlight the need for accelerated action to reduce what is now the second highest primary school class sizes in the EU”, the teachers’ leader added.. also under a reduction in the mainstream staffing schedule.
The statistics show that there are 150 pupils in Clare in a class size up to nine pupils and that there are 1,740 in classes with between 10 and 19 students.
However, Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen yesterday slammed what he described as “the Government’s failure to deliver on its Programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes in the county”.
“Although the latest figures show the Government has finally moved to tackle the single Clare school with a class sizes of over 40, the Department standard is for one classroom teacher for every 28 children.
Deputy Breen said there were still 3,157 pupils – or more than one in four of Clare’s 11,793 National School pupils – in classes of more than 30.
“It is a disgrace that Clare’s schools can fall so short of the national targets and it compares poorly with other counties. In Mayo for example, only 1,840 primary school children are in classes of 30 or more .
“The Programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes is in shreds and is nowhere near meeting its 2007/2008 commitment of 27 children per classroom”, he said.