Staff levels hit curriculum

ALMOST two-thirds of all secondary schools in Ireland surveyed recently on behalf of the ASTI said that they were being prevented from introducing new curriculum programmes because of inadequate staffing. According to the ASTI, the survey shows that Ireland's educational infrastructure is well below the standards of most developed nations.

For example, over half the schools surveyed in Cork said that they were being prevented from introducing new education programmes because of the need for additional staffing which is not being sanctioned. New education programmes include relationships and sexuality education and civic, social and political education.

Some 26 per cent of schools have suffered a shortage of qualified staff for relationships and sexuality education. Nine per cent of the schools say they have been prevented from offering relationships and sexuality education to students because of staffing restrictions, nine per cent have been prevented from offering computer science and 10 per cent from offering students access to the recently introduced technology module because of the pupil teacher ratio.

The survey also found that 26 per cent of schools in Ireland have had problems with a shortage of qualified staff for Foundation-level Irish.

The survey was conducted by Lansdowne Market Research and covered 556 schools. The response rate was a 66 per-cent and the survey is based on the results from those 365 schools. It was found that the top three priorities for schools - if additional staffing was available - are the reduction of class sizes; the targeting of literacy and numeracy problems and additional planning and organisation time.

Out of 45 schools in Cork, where the survey was launched last week, 39 have general subject classes with more than 30 pupils and 38 have practical classes with more than the recommended 24-pupil level. The survey also highlights the fact that only one of the Cork schools Cork has a permanent secretary for the school principal. This, according to the ASTI, points to "a potential recipe for administrative chaos".

In response to a Dail question last week on the survey, the Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach, said: "I am fully aware of the demands for increased funding by second level schools. There are also demands for increased funding in the other sectors of education, as well as demands for increased spending on other, public expenditure programmes.

The Minister said also in her written reply that she would shortly be announcing the composition of a steering group on the funding of second-level schools.