Class Sizes 8/9/08

Statement by John Carr, INTO General Secretary, on Class Sizes

8th September 2008
 
Education Department’s own figures show government failure to tackle super-sized classes.
 
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has said official figures released today (see below) show government failure to reduce class sizes in primary schools. John Carr, General Secretary of the primary teachers' union, said, “Almost one hundred thousand children remain in classes of thirty pupils or more despite year on year promises to tackle the issue.” Irish primary school classes are the second most over-crowded in the EU.
 
Mr Carr said while over-crowded classes are an issue throughout the country the figures show the greatest impact of government failure in commuter belts around cities and large towns. He blamed a lack of coherent planning which allowed houses to be built without vital infrastructure such as schools and school extensions as well as the failure to extend existing schools.
 
“This coupled with the failure to provide teachers for class size reductions means that in these counties particularly, huge numbers of children are in super-sized classes where teachers are struggling to implement the curriculum.”
 
Today’s figures show that just over one in ten Irish children are in regular sized classes of less than twenty pupils. Classes of twenty or less are internationally accepted as best practice. “Most of our EU neighbours have achieved this target for all pupils,” said Carr, “not just for ten percent of the school population.”
 
He said figures showing twenty percent of Irish primary pupils in classes of thirty pupils or more provide the clearest evidence of a lack of political will to tackle Ireland’s super-sized classes.
 
In 2002, the Programme for Government promised, “Over the next five years we will progressively introduce maximum class guidelines which will ensure that the average size of classes for children under 9 will be below the international best-practice guideline of 20:1”.
 
“That promise, which recognized international best practice of less than twenty, was abandoned,” said Carr.
 
Following this over 200,000 parents signed a petition calling for action on super-sized classes and 18,000 parents turned out to meetings to protest about their children being crowded out in super-sized classes. As a result another commitment to smaller classes was made in the current Programme for Government.
 
The present Programme for Government states, “We will increase the number of primary teachers by at least 4,000. This will enable us to reduce class sizes. The staffing schedule will be reduced from a general rule of at least one teacher for every 27 pupils in 2007/08, by one point a year, to one for every 24 children by 2010/11.
 
In the meantime not one of the promised 4,000 extra teachers has been employed to tackle super-sized classes. “There are more teachers in schools,” said Carr, “but these are to teach the extra children being enrolled in schools.”
 
He called on the Minister for Education and Science Batt O Keefe to stop relying on stock phrases relating to the state of the country’s finances.
 
“We know the economic situation is changed but that should not be used as an excuse for inactivity and helplessness,” said Carr. “Innovative solutions can be found if the political will to tackle the problem is there.”
 
According to the INTO the benefits of smaller classes are clear. When there are less than twenty children in a classroom, each pupil gets more attention from the teacher. Fewer pupils distract each other. Smaller class size also reduces the level of noise in a classroom. Each pupil receives a larger portion of the educational resources and consequently each pupil learns more. In smaller classes, teachers have more flexibility to use different teaching techniques suited to the needs of individual students.
 
ENDS.