Reducing pupil-teacher ratios 'a personal priority': O'Sullivan

The Education Minister has said she will make it a "personal priority" to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in the next Budget.

However, Jan O'Sullivan said she could not guarantee a reduction in the ratio, because of other pressures on the system.

She told the Dáil that the rising population may make it impossible to pay for enough teachers to reduce the ratio.

"As soon as we can do it economically, we should do it," she said. "So far I've only had enough money to address some of the issues around smaller schools*.

"However (reducing the pupil-teacher ratio would be a personal priority for me."

* In February this year, the Minister announced changes to staffing in smaller schools, focused on the number of pupils required to retain the existing teachers:

i. a 2nd teacher - a threshold of 19 pupils rather than 20 as it is currently

ii. a 3rd teacher - a threshold of 53 pupils rather than 56 as it is currently

iii. a 4th teacher - a threshold of 83 pupils rather than 86 as it is currently.

She also announced new teacher allocation thresholds for isolated one-teacher schools, with the threshold for appointment and retention of a second teacher in schools more than 8km from the next nearest school of the same type of patronage and language of instruction reduced from 20 pupils to 15 pupils. More here.