Teachers set to make classroom size an election issue

PRIMARY school teachers in Waterford county and city are preparing to make classroom sizes a key issue in the next general election in the four-seat constituency where Fianna Fáil will be defending the two seats it has consistently held for a generation and more.

Thousands of parents countywide have signed an INTO petition as part of the organisation’s national campaign to persuade the Government to fulfil its pre-2002 general election pledge to bring class sizes down and reach a target of fewer than 20 children under the age of nine per class.

Officers from INTO branches throughout the county met deputies Ollie Wilkinson (FF) and Brian O’Shea (Lab) and Senators Brendan Kenneally (FF) and Maurice Cummins (FG) to demand classroom sizes be significantly reduced.

“We have asked them to carry a clear message to the Minister for Education and to the Government on this issue,” an INTO spokesman said. “It is no longer acceptable to have primary school children in crowded classrooms, they deserve a better chance and shouldn’t be in the second highest classroom sizes in the entire European Union.

“The government gave clear commitments to reduce primary class sizes in their Programme for Government but to date have failed dismally to deliver on those commitments,” the spokesman added.

The chairman of the Dungarvan INTO branch, Don Shiel, said there are still more than 2,100 primary school pupils in classes of between 30 and 34 with a further 3,600 of them in classes of up to 29 children.

“The fact that we are now forwarding a petition signed by thousands of parents from the county and city of Waterford to the Government shows the huge level of parent frustration on this issue, he said.”

He said the INTO always has and will be non-political but the organisation in Waterford will make classroom size a major political issue at the next election if the Government has not seriously addressed it.