Our children do better in smaller classes

We put great trust in our teachers. We send our little ones to school and we trust that the teacher they meet will listen to them, comfort them, nurture them and, of course, teach them. But our children need space and attention to truly bloom.

The teachers I work with and the teachers I have met across the country as president of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation share the goals of their pupils’ parents.

They care about the children they teach and worry about them as though they were their own. If I had a euro for every time I have heard a teacher refer to their pupils as “my children,” I’d be a very wealthy man.

Teachers want all their pupils to be the best that they can be. We know that children do better in smaller classes.

With smaller classes, teachers can more quickly spot when a child is having difficulty and give more individual support (or challenge) to meet a child’s needs.

While the average class size nationally was 24.5 pupils in 2017/18 school year, (nearly 5 pupils per class above the EU average), over

20% of pupils in Sligo were in classes of 30 or more.

This provides challenges, especially (as is the case in many of our rural schools) when teachers are teaching several different class levels together in multi-grade settings.

A particular challenge for schools in the west of Ireland is the ongoing effect of migration to large urban areas, along-- policies of the Department of Education which prevents schools from acquiring a much-need- ed ad- di- tional teacher, even when extremely close to qualifying for one.

To transition from a two to a three-teach- er school, a school must have 54 pupils and to move from a three to a four-teacher school they must have 84 students. A school having 53 pupils, one off the threshold and arguably not all that different to a larger school must endure larger class sizes and stretched resources. It’s imperative these thresholds are reduced to the levels they were at prior to the recession.

When classes are of a more reasonable size, modern teaching methods are more effective, and teachers can spend the time needed with children.

The methodologies which are recommended as best practice are achievable in classes with smaller numbers and so the quality of teaching and learning is improved. We don’t want our children to get crowded out in their classrooms.

We need to bring our class sizes in line with the European average of 20 pupils per class. It’s not a huge ask. To reduce primary class sizes by one nationally would cost €16.5 million. Investing in our children when they are young pays dividends for a lifetime, so let’s give our pupils the room to bloom. Its imperative that local politicians step up and support our work in delivering more equitable pupil teacher ratios in Sligo.

In my role as President of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, I have regularly raised the issue with Minister McHugh, and will continue to do so.