Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have been contacted by the principal, staff members and parents of students at St. Mary's Boys' National School in Belturbet, County Cavan. They are reaching out to me and to other representatives in the area as they require immediate assistance with a situation in the school. It is a senior boys' school. Pupils attend from second to sixth class. The school currently has an enrolment of 77, with an increase of five this school year, eight last year and eight the year before, evidencing a rise in enrolment over the past three years.

In March of last year, the school had a projected enrolment of 78 pupils for this school year and the principal applied for a fourth mainstream class teacher for this small school. This application was successful so an excellent newly qualified teacher was recruited. She has begun the Droichead process and the pupils, staff and parents are all very happy with the situation. However, due to reasons beyond their control, some pupils who had enrolled cannot attend the school at present. The school is confident that they will attend by December of this year and feels the Department should take this into consideration. One pupil has enrolled but not yet attended the school due to medical reasons. He is receiving medical treatment abroad. His family has informed the school that he will back in Ireland in November and should be in school from then on. He was present with his peers for the second class induction day in June. That information has been provided to the Department. Two other pupils are awaiting visas. The website specified a three-month wait but that has come and gone and they are still waiting. It has been much longer than three months. They require these visas to get PPS numbers, allowing them to then enrol in the school.

The cut-off point for a fourth teacher is 78. The school has 77 pupils on the roll today and so is one pupil short of the allocation. The school was informed that it would lose the newly appointed teacher. The principal appealed this decision to the staffing appeals board but that appeal was rejected. The loss of this teacher will see average class sizes increase from 19 to 26. The increase may be bigger in some instances, depending on the class the students are in. Is the Minister going to deprive the children in this school in Belturbet of a smaller class size because the numbers state there should be one more pupil in the school, especially when it is known that there is a pupil receiving medical treatment and that there are pupils awaiting visas? These children's parents are living and working in Belturbet so they will be attending. They want to come to the school and will do so as soon as possible. The school will not have the physical capacity to fit these pupils into the classes if it is not left with its fourth teacher and is reduced to only three.

The principal and school community understand that there are rules, cut-off points and so on. If they were not aware of these three students who hope to attend the school before Christmas or if the school's enrolment trend was decreasing, they might understand this action but evidence has been provided that there are students waiting to enrol and attend,, but circumstances beyond their control are preventing them from doing so at the moment. I plead with the Minister for Education to do the right thing and to allow the school to retain the teacher it has just employed.

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