The Government's pledge to cut primary school class sizes to 20 by 2007 will not be met, the Minister for Education and Science, Ms Mary Hanafin, has conceded, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
In the 2002 Programme for Government, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats said the target would be reached "progressively" over the following five-year period.
Describing the commitment yesterday as "a noble aspiration", the Minister said: "I do not think that it is going to be possible."
Instead, the newly-appointed Minister said she would be concentrating all available resources to cope with disadvantaged pupils with serious reading problems.
"Anyone would accept that extra resources should be going to those children, those schools, those teachers, those parents to enable them to grow," she told TV3's Political Party programme.
In response, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation's general secretary, Mr John Carr, said teachers and parents would be "shocked" at the announcement.
"This was a specific commitment. It was unequivocal. There was no mention of confining this commitment to disadvantaged schools only," Mr Carr declared.
Last night, the Minister told The Irish Times that the country's teaching institutions are not producing enough teachers to meet the target.
"But we are putting new teachers into the system at a great rate. There have been 5,000 since 1998," she declared.
However, the emerging teachers are needed to replace unqualified teachers in disadvantaged areas and in special education, she explained.
"This is using up the supply that is coming out of the colleges. There is a question of having the supply to meet the needs," she told The Irish Times.
However, the INTO general secretary said class size cuts were not a "noble aspiration" for teachers: "To them it is an educational imperative.
"If teachers are to ensure that all children get the best possible start to their education, then class size needs to be reduced.
"If quality in education is to be maintained, then class size must be reduced because class size affects everything in primary schools.
"Educational innovation and improvement will founder on the rock of large class sizes," said Mr Carr, who warned last week that the target would not be met.
The teaching union then claimed that 180,000 children under the age of nine are taught every day in classes larger than 20, with hundreds of young pupils sitting in classes of 40 or more.
"This means that the parents of about 180,000 children have a vested interest in making sure that this government keeps its word. That's a lot of votes," Mr Carr added.
Meanwhile, the Minister has already rowed back on attempts by her predecessor, Mr Noel Dempsey, to issue school league tables and test pupils under the age of 11.
"The value of the tests should be for the children, the parents and the teacher to see how you could help the child move to the next stage, not for league tables, not for comparison.
"I am a former teacher. No league tables. You cannot capture the essence of a school and all of the extra curricular activities and all of the supports that go into a particular school in a league table," she argued.