FIANNA Fail has said it will provide all one teacher schools with an extra teacher on its return to government. It has also pledged that within four years it will end she practice of teachers taking several classes simultaneously in small schools.
The party's education spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin, said Fianna Fail would also ensure all existing two teacher schools would retain their second teacher even if their numbers dropped below the current 29 pupil minimum for such a school.
He said the measures to assist one and two teacher schools could be paid for out of the "demographic dividend" caused by falling pupil numbers. Of the State's approximately 3,200 primary schools, around 115 are currently one teacher and nearly 700 are two teacher, the vast majority in rural areas. To take on 115 extra primary teachers with five years experience would cost just ever £1.8 million per year in salaries alone.
Mr Martin said these initiatives would be "part of an overall rural regeneration programme" by a Fianna Fail government.
He went on: "This policy is essential to safeguard the educational needs of children attending small rural schools. These schools are vital to the survival of communities throughout rural Ireland. Rural communities will close down if rural schools close down."
Mr Martin also promised a Fianna Fail government would "revise staffing schedules" in the very large number of multi class primary schools with the aim within four years of ending the practice of teachers taking two, three or even four classes together in these schools. He said it was "not educationally sound to have different age groupings taught by the one teacher in the same classroom."
The INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, welcomed Mr Martin's statement. However, he said the INTO's priority was the lowering of the pupil threshold in small schools. Schools with more than 15 pupils should have a second teacher schools with fewer than 15 should have a full time teacher's assistant.