MINISTER FOR Education Batt O'Keeffe has moved to defend the Government's record on class sizes, despite new figures showing that the Republic has the second most overcrowded classrooms in the EU.
However, John Carr of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) said the Department of Education's own figures showed almost 100,000 children remained in classes of more than 30 pupils; just one child in 10 was in a class of fewer than 20.
The INTO has blamed a lack of Government planning for the current situation in primary schools.
During a visit yesterday to a primary school in north Cork, Mr O'Keeffe insisted that the Government's strategy to cut class size was working.
"Our policy in the plan was to deliver something like 6,000 new primary school teachers into the classrooms," Mr O'Keeffe said. "We had 4,000 delivered two months ago. We will continue that programme of building schools, building extensions, providing additional capacity for pupils coming in to our school and that always has to be the priority."
A spokesman for the Minister said there were now 30,000 primary school teachers - 6,000 more than there were in 2002 - and that 80 per cent of pupils were now in classes of fewer than 30 pupils.
The spokesman added that the pupil-to-teacher ratio was 16 to one. He also said that this year, the department was creating 7,000 new school places, a figure unprecedented in the history of the State.
Class size has been a difficult issue for the Government. Last year, it abandoned its commitment to deliver classes of fewer than 20 for all under-nines.
In the past decade, the Government has failed to honour repeated promises to reduce class sizes.
More than 18,000 people attended public meetings last year organised by the INTO on the issue. More than 200,000 parents also signed a petition demanding action on the issue.
Last night, the INTO president Declan Kelleher said young children should not suffer because of the current economic climate.
"In a time of economic cutback, you should ensure your young children are not put to the forefront to bear the brunt of that economic cutback," Mr Kelleher said. "If we are visionary in relation to our future, then we will ensure that in order to give our children the competitive edge they deserve in line with all the other European counterparts, that our children will be in reasonably sized classes.
"That is the demand of parents, teachers and education communities throughout this country."
