IPPN

Class sizes are falling

Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin T.D. today said that over the weekend Fine Gael released misleading statistics about class size in primary schools.

Minister Hanafin said "Olwyn Enright states that there was a 102% increase in the numbers of pupils in class sizes of more than 35 in just one year, between 03/04 and 04/05. This is factually wrong. Between these two years the total number of pupils in classes of 35 and over actually dropped from 10,064 to 9,093. In the category of 30 pupils and over Fine Gael stated there was a 45% increase between the two years, when in fact the increase was just 0.2%.

When Fine Gael were in last in Government, over 40% of children were in classes of 30 and over. Another startling reduction has been in the number of pupils in classes of 40 or more, when in 1996 almost 2,000 children were in such classes, last year the figure dropped to just 162 or 0.04% of all pupils.

The fact is that primary class sizes have decreased under this Government. The most recent figure available for average class size at primary level refers to the 2004/05 school year, when the average class size was 24, down from 27 in 1996/97.

The pupil teacher ratio at primary level (which includes all the teachers including learning support/resource teachers) has also fallen - from 22:1 in the 1996/97 school year to 17:1 in 2004/05.

This Government has put over 5,000 more primary teachers in our schools in the last few years. These have rightly been targeted at pupils with special needs and those from disadvantaged areas to ensure that they are getting the extra help that they need to reach their potential.

Now that services for these children have improved dramatically, future resources will be provided to bring down the average class size in our schools. To this end, the Minister for Finance is providing hundreds of extra teachers over the next two years."

Ends