School funding - Ministers have much to live up to

THE Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) is intensifying its campaign on class size by attempting to enlist all the parents of primary school children to exert pressure on politicians to tackle the problem.

Irish class sizes are the second largest in the European Union, and significantly behind those in much of northern Europe. The Government promised to make classroom size a priority in 2002 by pledging to provide a teacher for every 20 children younger than nine years of age.

Yet a quarter of all children are still in classes of more than 30. This makes it more difficult for teachers to provide individual attention to children who need such help, or even to identify those who may need more assistance.