The parents of a child whose class size has doubled since last year has said she is finding the new experience “not easy”. 

Siona and Fiachra Ó Braonáin’s daughter was due to be taught in a class of 37 but one child was taken out by their parents when they realised how big the class was. 

The family only realised “literally just days” before school went back just how large the class would be. 

The principal told Ms Ó Braonáin these are called “supersize classes” and they had been forced to merge a class because they were unable to fill a vacancy. 

“The school had to make a decision and in our schools I know they’ve had to move a special education teacher out of that setting to make up numbers,” she told The Hard Shoulder. 

Fiachna Ó Braonáin said his daughter had been “very happy” in her class of 18 last year and the she has retained the same “wonderful teacher” as she had last year. 

Despite this, the family are worried about the quality of the education in such a large class. 

“Being in a massive class when you’ve been used to smaller numbers is not easy,” he said. 

A group of school children in school uniforms. Image: NorthScape / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Ó Braonáin added that while large class sizes were once common, he noted that “education has moved on”. 

“It had to move on to allow for the diverse needs that pupils have,” he said. 

“There’s a huge range of needs as we know now and these are better served in smaller class numbers which we as a society have been aiming for for decades now. 

“But this situation is certainly a step back from that.” 

Gaelscoil 

One factor, Mr Ó Braonáin believes, is the difficulty Gaelscoileanna have recruiting qualified teacher. 

It is something he described as “unfortunate” given how “wonderful” attending a Gaelscoil is. 

“There was a time when teaching as Gaeilge was incentivised by an allowance,” he said. 

“I guess due to the fact that there is an extra workload particularly when kids come in to Junior Infants and Senior Infants and they’re learning Gaeilge [from scratch]. 

“But that allowance was done away with in 2012.” 

According to Gaeloideachas, 8% of primary schools teach through Irish.

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Main image: A group of primary school children during a school assembly. Picture by: NorthScape / Alamy Stock Photo