Number of small primary classes falls

THE proportion of children in small primary class sizes has fallen instead of risen, despite Government commitments over the past five years, official figures show.

While there has been a slight reduction in numbers being taught in classes of 30 or more since 2002, figures supplied by Education Minister Mary Hanafin show less than one in seven children were in classes of fewer than 20 pupils in the school year ended last summer.

This 13.7% of all 455,455 primary pupils is lower than the 15.3% who were in similarly low-sized classes after the election of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats in 2002. In the 2002 Programme for Government, a commitment was made to ensure the average class size for all children under nine would be 19 pupils or less.