Soaring birth rates are putting unprecedented demands on schools, the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., said today. Recent birth rate data show that 19,950 births were registered in the first quarter of 2011. This was an increase of 7.6% in the number of births registered in the corresponding quarter of 2010.
The figures, published by the Central Statistics Office, represent the highest number of births registered in any quarter since the series began in 1960.
“The demographic challenge facing the education system has not yet been the subject of extensive public discussion,” said the Minister who added that “it is vital that the schooling system is prepared to cope with these increased numbers”.
Total enrolment in both primary and post-primary schools is expected to grow by almost 70,000 between now and 2018 - over 45,000 at primary level and 25,000 at post primary - and will continue to grow up to at least 2024 at post-primary level.
The Minister said that his priority is now to focus on major school projects and smaller projects devolved to schools to meet the demographic demands.
“The primary aim will be to ensure that every child will have access to a school place,” he said.
The Government’s Medium Term Infrastructure and Capital Investment Framework which was published today includes an allocation for education capital of just over €2.2bn over the five years of the plan - an average annual allocation of just over €440m.
The investment for the next five years will provide over 100,000 permanent school places of which over 80,000 will be additional school places - the remainder will be replacement of temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation. This substantial investment will result in over 11% of the total school population benefiting from new permanent places delivered during the period 2012 to 2016.
“I will publish details of the school building programme for 2012 next month. Early in the new year, I will publish a five year plan outlining the projects to be constructed in that time,” said the Minister.
Given the number of projects to be delivered, the Department of Education and Skills is putting in place enhanced and diverse delivery methods. The third bundle of PPP schools is planned to be completed in 2013 and a further bundle is being developed for completion in 2016.
The Minister announced that capital funding is being made available to provide a primary schools minor works grant of €28 million for the current school year. This grant will be paid to schools in the coming weeks.
However, he said that given the need to focus on meeting the need for additional school places, it was unlikely that there will be funding available for summer works or minor works in the coming years.
Higher education capital investment projects with existing capital commitments in place will be completed. These include the UCD Science Centre, the University of Limerick Medical School, NUI Maynooth’s library project and the new Campus Development at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.
Projects where contractual commitments have not yet been entered into will not be advanced and the higher education PPP bundles will not proceed. He said that, unfortunately, in relation to DIT’s Grangegorman campus development, exchequer infrastructure investment will be postponed for the lifetime of the investment framework and planning will take place towards an initial PPP project, for possible completion in 2017.
The Minister concluded “I recognise that this will be a challenging time for the higher education sector.
“Given the constraints on capital funding, the Government has to prioritise school building projects and the very real need to ensure that every child has access to a school place.”