Changes in school: The effects of budget cutbacks in the classrooms

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe has insisted school staffing changes proposed in Budget 2009 will return them to teacher allocations they had in 2007, when he says “the roof did not collapse”.

From next September, schools will have one classroom teacher for every 28 pupils at primary level, and for every 19 students in second-level schools.

But budget measures other than those staffing changes will mean that, when schools reopen after the summer holidays, many other things will be quite different from what they were in 2007.