Galway East Sinn Féin’s Louis O’Hara has said that the quality of children’s education in Galway is being affected by large class sizes.
He said that countless classes are “far too big, in buildings too small, and not fit for purpose.”
O’Hara’s comments come after it was revealed that there were 125 primary school classes across the city and county with 30 pupils or more last year, and some had as many as 38 pupils.
He said that this underlines the need for increased investment in our education system in the upcoming budget.
“These figures are shocking and classes of this size would clearly put teachers and students under severe pressure.”
O’Hara said that Sinn Féin wants to abolish all classes of over 30 children and never allow them to return, and work towards attaining the EU average of 20 children per class.
“The Minister has an historic opportunity to introduce a two-point reduction in average class size in a single year.
“The Minister can do this by sufficiently investing in our Education system in the upcoming budget to make progress in reducing class sizes to the EU average.
“The INTO is campaigning for a two-point reduction in average class size in a single year. The Minister should listen to this and work towards reducing our primary school class sizes in line with the EU average.”
“A two point reduction to the pupil-teacher ratio in each of the next 2 years would cost €62m in total, €31m per year.”
