The policy of the Department of Education of appointing teachers on the basis of the number of pupils in each school is flawed and should be urgently reformed, according to confidential submissions to a Government review group.
The Department's policy of using the number of pupils enrolled in the last school year to decide the number of teachers to be allocated the following year is a "crude mechanism" which takes no account of schools' wider requirements, the submissions claim.
The submissions from school management bodies claim the curriculum is suffering because a strict adherence to the number of pupils in a school is given more weight than the range of subjects available in a school.
The submissions were made by two of the three second-level management bodies - the Irish Vocational Education Association and the Association of Community/Comprehensive Schools - which between them represent about 330 schools.
They were made to the expert group on staffing levels in post-primary schools which is considering future policy in relation to teacher allocation and will make recommendations to the Department of Education shortly.
According to the IVEA, the present system means a school with 250 pupils is entitled to an additional teacher, but schools with 249 students receive no additional allocations.
"This approach has been the cause of tremendous dissatisfaction in schools and is another example of a blunt and unhelpful approach." The ACS says: "The ever-increasing demands of an overcrowded curriculum have created a scenario whereby schools are finding it difficult to offer all subject/programme provision due to the staffing limitations/cutbacks". Outside of the ordinary allocations, "no guarantees of additional staffing exist and this prevents effective planning within the school".
It adds that subjects which are at risk because they are not the most popular with pupils should still be guaranteed staffing. "They must not be curtailed by issues of student enrolment or supernumerary teachers," it says. "The crude cut-off at 500 pupils as a qualifying mechanism for additional staffing supports is discriminatory and unjust in its application.
"The staffing limitations create a stressful climate in schools," the ACS adds, "due to high student numbers for classroom instruction by teachers and it ensures that little opportunity exists for team teaching."