Parents push back on merger of two junior classes at Cork primary school

Parents of a Passage West primary school are fighting against a proposed merger of the school’s two junior infant classes, as data shows 123 primary teaching roles in Cork were vacant last November.

Star of the Sea’s two junior infant classes are set to be merged into one 34-student senior infant class in September. That would result in the class being 51% larger than the average primary school class, which is 22.5 pupils.

There are now 135 classes in Co Cork which have more than 30 pupils, which is more than any other county.

Recent data also shows that 123 primary school teaching jobs in Cork were unfilled as of last November.

A representative of Star of the Sea parents told The Echo: “Our main concern is that these are five- and six-year-olds are still at the start of their education, before basic reading, writing, and independence skills are established.

“At this age, children need close individual attention. In a class of 34, the teacher will inevitably end up doing more crowd control than teaching.”

The merger comes as the school is set to lose a teacher from next September based on the 23:1 Department of Education ratios.

The school appealed the loss of a teacher, based on the fact that the department stipulates that small class sizes must be prioritised at infant level.

However, the department has rejected the parents’ appeal.

The parents’ representative said: “The underlying, systemic problem is that the department allocates teachers on a whole-school ratio, not by class, so a fluctuating intake year can produce an oversized class, while the school is compliant on paper.”

The representative said that the school made the choice on which class to merge, and has gone against the department advice to minimise the size of the infant classes.

“We’ve said all along that if the staffing pressure has to land somewhere, it would make more sense for it to fall on an older cohort, who’ve already learned to read and write and can work independently, even if that meant a grade-split class. The school has not shown that they’ve entertained that option.”

Further complicating the situation, the department has opened an autism class in the school this year, because it had identified that being down a teacher the school would have a spare classroom.

This means that there will be no spare classroom for an SEN teacher if students in the class of 34 need extra support. But if the appeal against the loss of a teacher had been successful, space would have been even more of an issue, the parents point out.

School principal Áine Corrigan told The Echo that the school is “devastated” to lose a teaching post and disappointed that their appeal was unsuccessful, encouraging parents to campaign for a reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio.

She added: “Class allocation decisions in Star of the Sea are considered very carefully and are always made in the best interests of all of the children in the school.” 

A spokesperson for the Department of Education told

that the Primary Staffing Appeals Board operates independently of the Minister and the department and its decision is final.

“Schools are currently allocated mainstream teaching posts on an average basis of 23 pupils for every one teacher. This is the lowest ratio level ever seen,” and down from 28 ten years ago, the spokesperson said.

“The configuration of classes and the deployment of classroom teachers are done at local school level. The department's guidance to schools is that the number of pupils in any class is kept as low as possible taking all relevant contextual factors into account.”