Pupils face having support with learning English halved

SOME 180 pupils are in danger of having their support with learning English halved next year under an education cutback finalised last week.

St Oliver’s National School in Killarney has 660 pupils, including 180 of 28 different nationalities, who have help from six language support teachers because their first language is not English. But principal Rory Darcy fears that, with 10 extra children with English as an additional language (EAL) likely to be enrolled next year, the impact will be enormous.

“Under the new staffing arrangements from the Department of Education, we would lose three of those teachers.