200,000 sign petition to reduce class sizes

MORE than one-in-10 voters have put their name to a petition calling on the Government to reduce the numbers of children crowded into primary school classrooms.

The 200,000 signatures delivered by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) to the Department of Education is likely to increase pressure on members of the coalition parties to make improvements in primary staffing levels.

The development comes less than a week after it emerged that the number of children in primary classes of 30 pupils or more rose by more than 5,000 in the past two years.