The Minister for Education and Science has announced that average class sizes in primary schools will be cut to a maximum of 30 from next September, potentially affecting up to 190,000 pupils.
Mr Martin particularly emphasised the plight of the more than 50,000 pupils who are currently in classes of more than 35, which is the Department of Education's maximum theoretic "guideline". Schools with this problem "will be in a position to very dramatically reduce the number of very large classes", he said. Big urban schools and amalgamated schools in provincial towns will be among the main beneficiaries.
Ireland has the largest class sizes and worst pupil-teacher ratios in the advanced world. Among OECD countries, only Turkey, Mexico and Korea are in a worse situation. The initiative will cost £9 million annually and mean an additional 150 primary teaching posts next September. Including new posts which will be filled by redeployed teachers, this will bring the number of extra jobs in the system to nearly 600.
The INTO leader, Senator Joe O'Toole, said the Minister's announcement was "a magnificent outcome" of the union's campaign. But he warned that "even with this initiative we will still have among the largest primary school classes in Europe". The next three steps, he said, should be the reduction of classes in disadvantaged schools to below 25; the reduction of "mixed" classes, with one teacher taking different age and ability groups, to below 25; and the reduction of infant classes to under 20. For the National Parents' Council (Primary), Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather said the priority now must be on getting the size of infant classes down. She also asked where the additional teachers would come from, "when there is already a shortage of substitutes."
A further announcement is expected later this week from Mr Martin on class sizes in second-level schools.
At a news conference in Cork yesterday, Mr Martin said it was unacceptable that in their formative years, young children should receive their education in overcrowded classrooms, Dick Hogan reports from Cork.
"The Government is determined to tackle this problem and improve significantly the conditions in which young children learn," the Minister said.
Mr Martin said the move was one of a number of major developments in primary school funding and staffing. "These include the extension of the remedial teacher service to all primary schools; the extension of the home/school liaison service to all disadvantaged schools and the distribution of the largest ever increase in direct funding for primary schools.
"The Government has made a clear commitment to give primary education a priority and to address a wide range of issues which have arisen because of previous under-investment. Our principal pre-election commitment was to retain teachers freed up by falling enrolments. We have not only implemented this but we have gone well beyond it."