More than 40,000 ‘spare’ places in schools for Ukrainian students, Foley says

New research indicates there are more than 40,000 spare places across primary and secondary schools which could be made available to Ukrainian students.

Teachers’ unions, however, have warned that the education system could come under significant strain unless more teachers and supports are made available.

Minister for Education Norma Foley said on Sunday that a survey of post-primary schools found there were 15,000-18,000 spare places, based on a response rate of 75 per cent.

It is estimated that that there are about 25,000 spare places in primary schools nationally.

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Ms Foley said these figures indicated there was “significant capacity” in the education system.

Latest official figures show there are a total of almost 4,000 Ukrainian children enrolled in Irish schools, with over 2,000 at primary level and 1,800 at second level.

Ms Foley that it was very difficult to quantify how many will ultimately require school places.

About one third of the estimated 23,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in in Ireland are children.

She told RTÉ’s This Week programme that “significant work” has been done to support students and schools so far.

More than 260 primary schools have successfully applied for additional hours or posts, while an announcement on supporting post-primary students and their families is due shortly.

This is likely to include providing tutors with a background of teaching English as a foreign language to second level students and their families through the State’s 16 education and training boards.

In addition, there are plans to roll-out upskilling courses for teachers to sharpen their language support skills.

Resources

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland meanwhile has said that an emergency motion to be placed before its annual conference will call on the Minister to ensure there is adequate capacity and resources made available to support Ukrainian students.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has said it is also vital to ensure psychological supports are made available to students.

Separately, Ms Foley has announced that €20 million will be provided to primary and secondary schools for the purchase of books for their libraries.

The fund will be paid to schools in the coming weeks and is additional to that already given for the school books rental scheme.

Schools will receive support from Public Library Supports for Schools to help spend their grant funding to meet needs of their students.

This will include webinars on assessing on selecting a meaningful book collection for each school and supports available from local libraries.

“As a teacher, I know well the value to our students of reading widely, and I have been determined that we invest in our school literacy resources. With this initiative we can ensure that schools and our students have access to the highest quality books and materials to support their literacy,” Ms Foley said.

The grant will be paid to schools based on pupil numbers at the same rate for all schools, primary and post-primary.

The Department will also send a guidance note to all schools, with support from the libraries service, on how schools can best use the funding received.

The Children’s Books Ireland charity said it will work closely with libraries by creating downloadable purchasing lists, webinars and resource packs to help ensure schools are well informed and get the best books for their students.