A Cork TD has expressed deep concern following revelations that Ireland has the largest primary school classes in the EU.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Cork South Central, Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire, said: \u201cThe average primary school class size here is 22.5, compared to a European average of 19. We are trailing behind our European counterparts in this respect, due to chronic under-investment in our education system.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe know the strain that big class sizes place on teachers, in the way that you are not able to provide the best quality education to your pupils, despite your best efforts. It\u2019s not fair on anybody.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The Echo recently revealed that 6.6% of primary school classes in Cork have more than 30 pupils, which is above the national average.<\/p>\n
Nationally, 1,392 classes had more than 30 pupils, or 5.8%, with 176 of these large classes being in Cork.<\/p>\n
Mr \u00d3 Laoghaire said: \u201cGovernment talks a good game about inclusive education. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and the department have said the vast majority of children with additional needs should be educated in mainstream classes. But how can that happen effectively when we have the biggest class sizes in Europe?<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHow can a teacher meaningfully differentiate their teaching and give every child the attention they need in a class with over 30 students?\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this means in practice is that the very children who need the most tailored support \u2014children with disabilities, learning difficulties, or trauma \u2014 are the ones falling furthest behind. Families are left feeling abandoned, teachers are overwhelmed, and children are suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need urgent reform to bring our classroom sizes in line with European norms. That means recruiting more teachers, investing in school infrastructure, and prioritising children with additional needs, instead of sidelining them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government cannot continue to speak about inclusion, while creating the conditions for exclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cork TD has expressed deep concern following revelations that Ireland has the largest primary school classes in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[781,9,10,4098,2597,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-3683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cork-news","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-cork-education","12":"tag-education","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}