Laois class sizes ‘way above’ EU average

Class sizes in Laois primary schools are “way above” the EU average, according to a Laois TD.

Independent TD Brian Stanley says that “our class sizes at primary school level remain too high and in County Laois this continues to be the case”.

He said “the average size of the classes in the EU at primary level is 19. However, in the case of Laois, they remain stubbornly high between 22 and 23. In fact we have 28 classes with over 30 pupils and a third of all pupils in the county remain in classes where there is more than 25 pupils. This becomes a more acute problem in the larger towns and is totally unacceptable.”

“The Government have failed to take the necessary steps to fix this. Currently 996 Primary School Teaching Posts remain unfilled and almost eight thousand are filled by unqualified substitutes.”

Deputy Stanley said the expectation was with falling birthrates that progress would be made and that matter would level out because this would feed through to reduced class sizes.

“The overall picture is disappointing because the importance of primary education cannot be overstated. Primary education provides the building blocks for a child’s development and for their future education,” he said.

“I am calling on Government to address this and in particular, I am calling on the Fine Gael Minister Hildegarde Naughton and Fianna Fail Minister John O’Mahoney, who are in charge of the Department of Education to give this greater priority. They need to see to it that these teaching posts that remain unfilled are addressed as a matter of priority”.