Kerry primary schools ‘the most overcrowded in Europe’

‘INDEFENSIBLE’: OUR PRIMARY CLASSES SOME OF THE BIGGEST IN EU

KERRY children are struggling to learn in the most overcrowded primary classrooms to be found anywhere in the entire European Union.

Our children’s plight was put into sharp focus by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) this week as they showed just how crowded Kerry primary classrooms now are.

The over-crowding is the result of successive austerity budgets driving teacher numbers to an historic low..

The shocking new figures show the vast majority of primary pupils in Kerry are now in classes greater than the EU average size of 20.

Over one fifth of all primary pupils in Kerry now attend classes of 30 pupils and more. Meanwhile, 90 per cent of Kerry primary pupils are in classes greater than 20. General Secretary of the INTO Sheila Nunan branded it’ indefensible’ that children should be forced to learn in such conditions: “The potential of primary school pupils is being compromised by larger classes.”

KERRY children are struggling to learn in the most overcrowded primary classrooms anywhere in the entire European Union.

Shocking new figures obtained by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) show that the vast majority of primary pupils in Kerry are now attending classes greater than the EU average size of 20.

Successive Government cuts have forced teacher numbers so low that our children now find themselves in the biggest classrooms anywhere between Valentia and Vilnius.

One fifth of all primary pupils in Kerry now attend classes of 30 pupils and more, it has emerged. Meanwhile, 90 per cent of Kerry primary pupils attend classes greater than 20. General Secretary of the INTO Sheila Nunan said it is ‘indefensible’ children should be forced to learn in such crowded conditions.

“Large class sizes are affecting over half a million pupils and their families. Primary schools should be a national priority,” Ms Nunan said as she called on Minister Jan O’Sullivan to begin reversing the Government’s austerity thrust towards education.

More than 13,800 pupils in Kerry schools are in classes of 20 pupils and more. Over 3,200 are in what the INTO describes as ‘supersize’ classes of more than thirty pupils. Ms Nunan said figures for Kerry show that 20.6 per cent of pupils are in classes of 30 and more; 66.8 per cent in classes of between 20 and 29 pupils and just 12.6 per cent in classes under 20.