Vol. 260 No. 2
asked the Minister for Education if his attention has been drawn to a statement made at the recent INTO annual congress that an INTO Dublin south city survey found that the greatest number of classes in the survey, 239, had between 46 and 50 pupils, 231 classes had between 41 and 45 pupils and only 61 out of a total of 703 classes had 30 pupils or under; and if any measures are proposed by his Department to alleviate this problem.
63.
asked the Minister for Education if his attention has been drawn to a statement made at the annual congress of the INTO on 5th April, 1972, that an INTO area survey in south County Dublin had shown that 71.1 per cent of all pupils were in classes of over 41 and that the average of three-quarters of the pupils in this area was 46.2 per class; and if any measures are proposed by his Department to alleviate the position.
64.
asked the Minister for Education if his attention has been drawn to a statement made at the annual congress of the INTO on 5th April that an INTO area survey in Cork city and the adjoining rural area had shown that 15 per cent of all classes had 50 pupils or over, while 63 per cent had 40 pupils or over and only 12 per cent had 30 pupils or less; and if any measures are proposed by his Department to alleviate the position.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle I propose to take Questions Nos. 62, 63 and 64 together.
I am aware of statements made at the recent INTO congress regarding surveys carried out on the class-size position in certain areas of Dublin city and county and Cork city. As the surveys were not submitted to me I have no detailed knowledge of their breadth and depth. I gave the Deputy information in a reply on the 9th February last in relation to the position in the greater Dublin area.
The measures being taken by me to alleviate the position where large classes exist are:
(1) At the present time we are providing annually about 220 teachers more than the number required to meet normal replacements.
(2) The country-wide teacher-pupil ratio is 1:32. The policy of amalgamating small schools will, over a period, help to ensure a proper deployment of the teaching force and the teachers' work load will be more evenly spread.
(3) Many large classes result from incorrect school organisation. These cases are being identified and appropriate action taken.
(4) While there has been little increase in the number of pupils attending national schools in the past ten years the number of teachers has increased by over 1,000.
I anticipate that by the implementation of these policies the problem of large classes will be very much reduced by 1973.
The Minister says the numbers will be reduced by 1973. Does the Minister realise that 1973 is next year and, on the basis of the figures given here, it would take three years to make any indentation on the problem posed in the question?
The Deputy should read my reply and he will see the way in which we are dealing with this problem.
Having regard to the numbers mentioned here, it will take three years before there will be any indentation on the problem.
