THE ratio of pupils to teachers in Irish secondary schools has risen due to cutbacks. The Sunday Times Parent Power survey, published in today’s paper, has found the average pupil-to-teacher ratio has increased from 14:1 in 2008/09 to 15.6:1 in 2009/10.
Since the cuts in 2008, funding for one teacher is now made on the basis of 19 pupils instead of the previous 18. Fee-paying schools have had their entitlement stretched to one teacher for every 20 students.
Declan Glynn, the assistant secretary-general of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, said an increase in ratio can have a detrimental effect on education. “When you disimprove the ratio, class sizes automatically increase or else you have to reduce tuition time or reduce the number of subject options,” he said. “Specialist subjects such as physics come under threat because schools find it difficult to justify staffing for smaller classes, even though these are the very subjects we need taught for economic recovery.”
The ratio in today’s Parent Power survey is calculated from schools’ enrolment figures and the Department of Education’s teacher allocation figures for the academic year 2009/10.
The top 400 schools are ranked according to progression to university, with Gonzaga College in south Dublin topping the table and Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick ranked second.
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This is the fifth year Gonzaga has come first in the survey. The changes in the department’s allocation model means the Dublin school’s pupil/teacher ratio has moved from 16.5:1 in 2008/9 to 17:1 in 2009/10.
The Teresian school, ranked third at 91.6%, is another fee-paying school in south Dublin. The ratio in the girls’ institute moved from 15.4:1 to 18.7:1 in the past year. This increase is partly because the school took in extra students in 2009.
Like many fee-paying schools, the Teresian supplements the department’s allocation by paying extra teachers with private funding. “The allocation has been reduced and because of this we have to pay more privately paid teachers,” said Cordon.
In January, the department of education disclosed it pays the country’s 56 fee-paying schools €100m a year in teachers’ salaries.
Cordon said private schools are saving the state money. “Private schools cater for 26,000 students,” she said. “If all those private schools were to close, those children would have to go to public school and the department would have to pay a lot more to fund their education.”
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Ruairí Quinn, the new education minister, has said he has no plans to change the current system.