Class time for pupils at risk over staff cuts

Any more cuts to teacher numbers will leave second- level schools unable to provide the 28 hours of weekly classes all students must receive, management has warned.

A new survey shows most schools have reduced subject choices, mixed higher- and ordinary-level classes, or sent principals and deputy principals back to teaching to cope with the effects of additional hours for guidance counselling being withdrawn this year.

More than half of schools have sent guidance counsellors back to teaching as a result of the increase in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) adopted by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn.