Dail to debate Labour's class size motion

Posted on March 20, 2007 at 05:06 PM

Class sizes
Labour has tabled a motion in the Dail calling on the Government to honour it's commitments to reduce class sizes for the under9s to under 20:1

As concerned parents all over the country pack out meetings on class sizes organised by the INTO in their 'Is your child being crowded out' campaign the Labour Party has tabled a motion on the issue to be discussed this evening and tomorrow night in the Dail (March 20/21st).

This is the second such motion to go before the Dail, the first was rejected by the Government.

We know that children do better in smaller classes. The INTO estimates that a child in an overcrowded class will only receive about eight minutes of teacher time each day. We know that children who have learning difficulties benefit from smaller classes and we know the Government did a u-turn on a previous commitment to reduce class sizes for the under 9s to below 20:1.

Labour's education spokesperson, Jan O'Sullivan said: "The decision of the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, to renege on the commitment to reduce class sizes was one of the most shameful decisions made by this Government. Indeed in some respects the situation has actually worsened in recent years."

Deputy O'Sullivan explained how recent figures she has obtained on the issue show that the number of school children in classes of 30 or more has increased by more than 5,000 in the last two years.

The Government pledged to reduce this to below 20:1 however as things stand now Ireland has the second highest class sizes in the EU.

In our motion we are calling for an agreed date when parents can expect the Government to honour its commitment to reduce class sizes.

Until that happens there are more than 100,000 primary school children and 35,000 second-level student are being taught in classes larger than 30 pupils throughout the country.

What can you do to help?

You can find out more by attending the INTO's meetings, details of the forthcoming meetings are available on their website.

You can phone, fax or email your local TD to find out how they intend to vote on the debate. Their contact details are available here.

You can also watch the live webcast of the debate at this link.

More information on Labour's class sizes campaign can be found here while you can read more on the INTO's campaign here.

Tagged with Education • policy