Primary teachers seek reduction in the size of classes

Primary school teachers have demanded a reduction in the number of pupils in Irish classrooms, which are the second largest in the EU.

The closing day of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) annual congress unanimously passed a motion calling on union executives to lobby for a reversal of the changes to class sizes in small schools.

Primary schools in Ireland have some of the largest classes in the EU. On average there are 25 pupils in Irish classes compared to an EU average of 20 per class. However, this includes special schools and classes, which brings the Irish average down. Countries like Poland (19), Italy (18.7), Greece (16.8) and Luxembourg (15.3) all have smaller class sizes than Ireland.

West Dublin delegate Mary O’Flaherty said Irish pupils are most likely to be in classes of 25 to 30, while 120,000 children (22.3% of the student population) were in “supersized classes” of 30 or more. Ms O’Flaherty said it was “scandalous “that 88% of children are in classes of 20 or more while only 12% were being taught in classes of less than 20.

“Add to this the other losses from the education system, the loss of teachers for travellers, the loss of English language teachers, the reduction in resource hours. These losses put added pressure on the classroom teacher and on the children in a mainstream class,” she said.

The west Dublin delegate cited a Swedish flat pack company that has a message on the wall in one of its departments stating: “Children are the most important people in the world.

“It’s time our Government took the same view and made a pledge to reduce class size to the EU average by 2016. It would be a fitting commemoration to 1916,” she said.

INTO central executive committee member Joe McKeown from Kilkenny described the decision by the Minister for Education and Skills to increase class sizes in small schools as “draconian and unwarranted,” and was an effort to force rural schools to close.

“We need to expose Government policy for what it is. It is an underhand attempt to render rural schools unviable and to force them to close, regardless of the effect this has on their local community. It seems that small schools are seen as an administrative inconvenience to be removed by stealth,” he said.

Principal of Mullagh NS in Clare, Seán McMahon, was elected as the new president of the INTO. Principal of Cloghroe National School in Inniscarra in Cork, Emma Dineen, was elected vice-president.