Kenny seeks school enrolment figures

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has challenged the Government to publish school enrolment figures to determine the scale of education cutbacks.

He claimed that in the next five years, the average size of classes for children under nine years would be below the international best practice guideline of 20 to 1.

“Next year, 100,000 pupils will be in classes of over 30 and more than 450,000 primary school children will be in classes of more than 20.”

He said Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe, in an interview in China, had stated there would be 200 job losses each in the primary and secondary sectors.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who was taking the Order of Business, said the staffing schedule and applications would be based on figures at the end of September.

“The figure of approximately 200 teachers each in the primary and secondary sectors is based on the overall allocation this year,” said Ms Coughlan. “The figures from members opposite do not take into consideration the increases, changes and permutations there always are within the available staffing schedules.”

She said the Department of Education’s budget next year would be slightly more than €9.6 billion, representing an increase of €302 million. “Overall, the budget will comprise an increase of 3.2 per cent over the 2008 figures. The amount of spending on education has trebled since 1997,” she said.

She added that Mr O’Keeffe had asked to work in partnership with the teacher unions and the teachers.