Growth of Pupil Numbers in Primary Schools 30/4/08
Statement by John Carr, INTO General Secretary, on the growth of pupil numbers in primary schools
30th April 2008Latest CSO Report a wake up call government.
The latest report from the Central Statistics Office is a further reminder to government that increased investment in primary education is absolutely necessary. More penny pinching on primary funding is indefensible.
According to the CSO, the primary school population is set to grow by as much as 38% or a massive 172,600 within the next 13 years. Current output from the colleges of education will go nowhere near meeting this growth.
Already the system is creaking under recent modest increases in the school population. Many classes are being taught by persons with no teaching qualifications and rarely are teacher absences covered by a qualified teacher. Irish pupils are taught in the second most over-crowded classes in Europe and promises to reduce class sizes have been broken.
Things will get a lot worse unless proper planning and increased resources become the order of the day.
The first and most important issue is for the Department of Education and Science to get the right number of teachers trained and into schools. To do this there must be an immediate increase in the intake into the Colleges of Education.
Currently, Ireland is depending on the UK to train huge numbers of primary teachers. This is in effect the same as having one of the largest colleges of education outside the state. The Education Minister has absolutely no control over or influence on these courses.
We don’t rely on Gordon Brown to train gardai, doctors or engineers. Why teachers? This absurd situation must be tackled immediately. As a state, we must be able to train our own teachers.
The INTO is demanding a study of the supply and demand situation for primary teachers, including substitute teachers for the period 2008 to 2021, the same period covered by today’s CSO report. The Education Department should commission the ESRI to provide such a report, before the end of this school year.
Without such a study the Department is flying blind, unable to say with any certainty if the most basic resource every child deserves – a fully trained primary teacher - will be available next year, the year after that or the year after that again.
ENDS.