Class sizes in primary school fall to lowest for a decade

AVERAGE class sizes in primary schools have fallen to their lowest level in almost a decade, although almost one in five pupils is still being taught in overcrowded classrooms.

New figures from the Department of Education show the average class size in the most recent school year was 24.1 students – down from 24.3 in 2018/19. It is the lowest figure since 2010 when the average class size stood at 23.9.

The figures show 98,146 students out of a total of more than 552,500 attending primary school are in classes of 30 or more pupils – 11,400 fewer than 12 months ago.

The proportion of pupils in overcrowded classes now stands at 17.8pc compared to 19.8pc a year ago.

At the same time, approximately two in five out of the country’s 3,107 national schools have at least one classroom containing 30 or more pupils, with two schools having 40 or more pupils in a single classroom.

Records show Blessed Oliver Plunkett National School in Moate, Co Westmeath, had a class of 45 pupils in the recent school year, while Killmeen National School in Rossmore, Clonakilty, Co Cork, had 40 pupils in one class.

Pupils attending gaelscoileanna outside Gaeltacht areas are more likely to be in large classes than English-medium schools or gaelscoileanna in the Gaeltacht. More than 28pc of pupils in Irish-medium schools outside the Gaeltacht are in large classes compared to 17pc of pupils in schools where English is the main language.

Similarly, Catholic schools have a higher proportion of students in overcrowded classes than schools with a multi-faith ethos.

Over 18pc of pupils in Catholic schools are in classrooms of 30 or more compared to 12pc of multi-denominational schools.

Primary school pupils in Leitrim are the most likely to be studying in an overcrowded classroom. Around one in four of all children in the county are in classes of 30 or more.

At the other end of the scale, only one in eight children in national schools in Cavan are in overcrowded classrooms.

The school with the highest average class size in the country has consistently been Scoil Mobhi, a gaelscoil in Glasnevin, Dublin. In the last school year it had an average of 31.8 pupils in each of its eight classrooms, although the level has been falling.

The figures show the pupilteacher ratio has fallen steadily from 20.3 in 1999 to 15.0 in the recent school year.

The decrease is largely attributed to the increase in the number of special needs assistants (SNA) in schools.

The number of non-classroom teachers, which includes SNAs, administrative principals, and home-school community liaison teachers, has almost trebled in the past 20 years to almost 15,000.

There is no statutory limit on class sizes, although in 1990 the department said “appropriate learning experience is difficult to achieve when classes consisting entirely of mainly four-year-old children exceed 25”.

Two schools had 40 or more pupils in a single classroom