Budget 2009: Most Over-Crowded Classes in Europe 15/10/08

Statement by John Carr, INTO General Secretary, on Budget 2009

15th October 2008

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has said yesterday’s budget decision to increase class sizes will mean that next year Irish children will be in the most over-crowded classes in Europe.  

Last night the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O Keeffe TD, announced that the Staffing Schedule (the number of students on which classroom teacher appointments in primary schools are based) will be increased by one point from next September. This will see classroom teachers appointed on the basis of 28 children rather than on 27 children this year.  

The INTO said this decision is a complete reversal of commitments in the Programme for Government to lower class sizes. “Far from making sure that primary pupils are in smaller classes, this Minister is making classes even more over-crowded,” said INTO General Secretary, John Carr.  

He said the decision rows back the small progress that was made in recent years to tackle over-crowded classes. “It is a savage attack on primary schools that will shock and anger parents and teachers who together campaigned for smaller classes for young children.” 

This year nearly 100,000 pupils are in classes of more than thirty pupils. “This is double the number of children in the average primary school class in Luxembourg,” said Carr. “Next year, the number of children in supersized classes of more than thirty will increase,” said Carr.  

“Minister O'Keeffe has ensured that Ireland has knocked England off the top of the league table of most over-crowded classes. For once, beating England is not a source of pride.”  

Mr Carr said the claim by the Minister that the decision would have no appreciable impact on education was an appalling statement for any Minister for Education. “It clearly shows that the Minister has no understanding of the educational needs of young children.”  

He said the government would earn the contempt of teachers and parents if this shocking decision was not reversed. “Government is demanding that primary school children pay the price for its failure to properly manage the economy,” said Carr.  

James Joyce once wrote that Ireland is the old sow that eats her own farrow. “Nearly a hundred years later we have the old Celtic tiger devouring her own cubs,” he said.  

ENDS