Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for Education and Skills

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, in making the decisions
regarding the number of teachers allocated to small primary schools, a school
(details supplied) in Dublin 8 can be considered a special case in view of the
particular purpose for which the school was set up, its historic association
with the Cathedral; and if he will make a statement on the matter?
[St Patrick’s Cathedral Choir School
St Patrick’s Close
Dublin 8
Co. Dublin]

Reply

I propose to take questions 226, 228, 241, 245, 263 and 264 together.
My Department will be notifying schools shortly of the new staffing
arrangements for the 2012/13 school year. It will include details of the
staffing appeals process and appeal criterion for those small schools that are
projecting increased enrolments that would be sufficient to allow them to
retain their existing classroom posts over the longer term.

As part of the Budget 2012 decisions, the number of pupils required to gain and
retain a classroom teaching post in small primary schools will be gradually
increased between September 2012 and September 2014. Even when all of these
phased increases are implemented, the threshold for small schools will still be
significantly lower than the minimum of 28 pupils that was required for the
appointment of a second teacher in schools prior to the mid-1990s. All schools
are being treated equally irrespective of the type of patronage.

The phasing of these measures can provide the schools concerned with time to
consider the potential for amalgamation with other schools where this is
feasible. If amalgamations take place, they will be voluntary and follow
decisions taken by local communities and not by my Department.