No resources for class size reduction, says Dempsey

THE Government has been accused of reneging on an election promise to radically reduce primary class sizes.

Education Minister Noel Dempsey admitted yesterday he did not have the resources to reduce primary school classes to a ratio of 20 pupils to one teacher for the foreseeable future.

The aim was one of the central planks of the FF-PD coalition's programme for government, Fine Gael and Labour claimed yesterday.

The minister said he was prioritising his resources for this year on the allocation of 350 extra full-time teachers for children with special needs. The additional deployment, he said, would ensure the backlog of applications on behalf of pupils with special needs (currently standing at 6,700) would be cleared by September.

He said the vast majority of children would no longer need a psychological assessment and their needs would be automatically met by the additional teaching resources. Those with more severe forms of need and disability would continue to be assessed, he said.

However, Mr Dempsey told delegates he does not foresee any reduction in the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in primary schools.

"I have prioritised special needs and disadvantage and any extra posts will go into those areas in a focused way. I would love to have class sizes at 15 or 16 but we have to cut our cloth to suit our measure.

"I think a hang-up about specific size of classes is understandable from teachers but we still have one of the best education systems in the world," he said.

Fine Gael's Education spokesperson Olwyn Enright and her Labour counterpart Jan O'Sullivan both said yesterday they had visited schools in recent weeks which had 33 and 34 pupils in some classes.

Describing yesterday's announcement as a "cop-out", Ms Enright contended if there was a smaller pupil-teacher ratio for very young children, it would prove cost-effective in the longer term.

She also questioned the timing of the announcement of the additional special needs teachers, coming less than two months before the local elections and expressed doubt over whether school principals would have the qualifications to assess if a pupil's needs were mild or not.

Ms O'Sullivan described the minister's statement on class sizes as "another broken promise".

The additional teaching posts were welcomed by the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) last night. General secretary John Carr said it is important the 6,700 special needs applications are processed as quickly as possible.

He said the union's next campaign will be to ensure the Government policy that no child is taught in a class of 20 or more is implemented.

Last night, Mr Dempsey told the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) annual convention in Killarney he does not support the publication of league tables based on exam results.