Concerned parents withdraw children from school and protest over class size

"It is not acceptable."

A number of parents have withdrawn their children from primary school after it emerged last week that two classes will merge into one, with 41 students total. Parents are concerned that the class size is too big, and have begun to protest the decision made by the school. According to the Independent, 10 parents with children in Scoil Bhríde in Menlo, Galway, have taken their child out of the class. The school has offered to give separate lessons in the core subjects - English, Irish and Maths - for 15 hours a week, with a support teacher coming in. One parent told the publication:

"The 5th class students are going to be in the library with the learning support teacher and the 6th class students will stay in the classroom with the teacher. "At this point, it's the only compromise we're going to get. We only found out last Wednesday that there wasn't going to be two teachers. It's been really rough."

Meanwhile, Independent Councillor for Galway City Central, Mike Cubbard, told the Independent:

"The Department of Education based their teacher allocation on the numbers from September 2017 and the school was eight pupils short of getting another teacher. There is an appeals process that can be done, but the school failed to do an appeal. "The school also said they will do a full safety audit and the parents accepted that on Friday morning. A small number of parents, possibly four or five, have moved their children to another school, but the majority reluctantly compromised."

Scoil Bhríde has not yet made a comment on the matter.