A RECORD 7,000 school places will be delivered for the new school year, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe said last night.
But the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) accused the Government of "broken promises" on overcrowded classrooms. It said 100,000 pupils will be in classes of more than 30.
The Minister said the "fast-track" approach to school building will deliver 26 projects this year. Twenty of these consist of eight-classroom units and the remainder are 16-classroom units.
There was controversy this time last year with an enrolment crisis in several areas around Dublin.
The programme for government contains a commitment to "establish a Developing Areas Unit in the Department of Education to . . . identify where new schools are needed and ensure that they are delivered".
Mr O'Keeffe said the new schools are in areas which have experienced population growth.
An estimated 100,000 additional primary and post-primary school places will be needed over the next seven years, mostly in Dublin. The department said the percentage of children in classes of more than 30 fell from 25 per cent in 2006 to 20 per cent in 2007.
"This is light years away from the Government's promise to reduce class sizes for young children to less than 20," said John Carr, the INTO general secretary.
