Ba mhaith liom inniu ceann de phríomhchuspóirí oideachais an chláir Rialtais a ardú; is é sin an gealltanas an cóimheas dalta agus múinteora a laghdú agus plé a dhéanamh ar an deis atá ann tús a chur leis an ngealltanas sin a chomhlíonadh i mbuiséad 2027. I wish to discuss one of the key educational commitments of the programme for Government, specifically the one to reduce the general pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools to 19:1. The opportunity afforded to Government to contribute to fulfilling that commitment should be utilised as part of budget 2027. As I said, the commitment aims to bring the general pupil-teacher ratio down to 19:1 over the lifetime of the Government and it is time we started looking at that given that we are now in the second budget of five of this Government.
The primary staffing schedule furnished to schools for this current academic year, 2026-27, advised schools that they will operate on the basis of a general average of one classroom teacher for every 23 pupils. We know that there are schools where there are children in classes of greater size. Yesterday I spoke to a parent of a child in senior infants where there is a class of 29. While the trend is going in the right way, Department of education statistics highlight that in the last academic year some 39,000 school children were in classes of 30 or more.
I acknowledge there are local-based factors that contribute to that and it is not all simply down to the primary teaching schedule. However, in comparing 23:1, as it is for the next academic year, and 19:1, where we hope to get to, we have some distance to travel in the fulfilment of the commitment. I think everyone can appreciate the benefit to a pupil's learning to be in a class of a smaller size.
My own professional experience was that within the schools where I was privileged to work, wherever we encountered a challenge in the progression of a pupil, be that an academic challenge, behavioural challenge, social challenge or communicator challenge, the best resource that we could make available to try to meet those challenges and to work with the pupil was to increase discrete pupil-teacher time. That is at a premium and it is at even more of a premium when we consider the broadened curriculum, the new curriculum framework that is going to introduce new subjects. This is an issue that is pressing and pending. Schools are inundated with people selling online tools, schemes and programmes to try to help with the issues that pupils encounter. However, without a shadow of a doubt, all of those fall into insignificance when compared with the progress that can be made by providing additional discrete pupil-teacher time.
The Minister will be aware that more children are undergoing NEPS and, indeed, non-NEPS psychological assessment. The outcomes of these assessments are generally the formation of a report where a number of recommendations will be provided to the class teacher that they should incorporate into their teaching for the benefit of a specific pupil. It is simply impossible for a teacher to do that when they are teaching a class of 25 or 26 pupils. The issue is pressing. It is a commitment of the programme for Government and I hope that we will start to try to fulfil that commitment in the upcoming budget.
