Reducing class sizes - Government has failed to deliver

It IS traditional for the three teacher’s unions — the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) — to hold annual conferences during Easter week.

This year, the conferences have the added spice of a number of controversial issues, such as the rowing back by the Government on repeated promises to cut class sizes, in addition to the fallout from the controversy over water and refuse charges on schools, as well as serious funding problems facing lecturers at institutes of technology. The TUI had warned that industrial action is imminent, because enough money has not been allocated to meet industrial relations agreements, even those recommended by the Labour Court. The INTO will be discussing what to do about the Government reneging on its pre-election promise to cut class sizes. Current class sizes are set at one teacher for every 27 pupils.

The programme for government drawn up last summer promised to cut class sizes by one point a year over the next three years in order to reduce the average class size to 24 pupils by 2010. It now appears that they are not even going to take the first step.