Junior infant class sizes in Newbridge to rise to 30 by 2010 under Fianna Fail - Daly

Despite the INTO’s campaign against overcrowding in primary schools, junior infant class sizes are set to rise to 30 by 2010 in Newbridge, according to Richard Daly, Fine Gael candidate for Kildare South in the upcoming general election.

In 2002 a programme for government agreed by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats promised to reduce the average class size for children under 9 to below the international best practice guideline of 20 pupils to one teacher.

Currently in Newbridge the class sizes for junior infants average 28:1 in the 15 classes available.

Richard Daly says, “In Newbridge 447 children were baptised in 2006 and assuming the current average of 20% for children not baptised, 536 children will be joining junior infants in 2010 in Newbridge. This excludes the impact of any increase in the population in the meantime.

The government solution is 3 new pre-fabs in the vocational school car park this September, making 18 classes available for junior infants. That is an average of 30 per class, up from the current level of 28. To bring the average to the required 20, a further eight classes would be needed and this would not allow for any additional newcomers to the area.

These numbers prove that Newbridge requires two new primary schools immediately, something that the local providers have been stressing to the department of education since 2001, but their pleas have landed on deaf ears.

Daly added, “The difference between what the government is proposing and what needs to be done is a measure of the lack of investment undertaken in the last 10 years, at a time when billions were squandered on large capital projects

In the past this government didn’t have the vision to plan for the impact on the school system of forecasted population growth, and now it still hasn’t got the management skills to solve the problem. It is hard to believe that two of the last three ministers for education are teachers themselves, and allowed this deterioration to unfold.”

ENDS