PEOPLE power and pressure are the tactics that teachers and parents across the county will be using to reduce class sizes in Donegal.

Over 600 people turned out on a wet and windy Monday night to voice their support at the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) meeting in the Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny as part of the nation-wide campaign to reduce class sizes.

Some 82 percent of children in Donegal are being taught in classes with more than 20 pupils, of those 22 percent are in classes above 30 and 60 per cent are in classes up to 29 pupils. In some schools in Ramelton there are classes of 35 and 37 children.

Mr Liam McGowan, INTO District Committee chaired the meeting with Gerard McGeehan from the Central Executive, Rev Fr Timoney, Catholic Primary School Managers Association (CPMSA), Joe Gattins, CPMSA, Rev Stanley Johnston, COI, Sheila Nunin, General Treasurer and John Boyle, Central Executive.

Public representatives in attendance who all vouched their support to lower class sizes were; Deputy Niall Blaney, Senator Joe McHugh, Cllr Pearse Doherty, MEP, representing Cllr Padraig Doherty, Frank Gallagher, Green Party candidate and Dr James McDaid, TD. Deputy Cecilia Keaveney sent her apologies and said she would continue to raise the issue with Education Minister, Mary Hanafin.

Ann McGowan, a teacher at Scoil Cholmcille in Letterkenny and communications officer for INTO, said that the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin TD, had not delivered on a solemn promise to reduce class sizes of the under nines to less than 20.

"The Minister has delivered on special needs and the school buildings programme but our aim now is to remind all those in the run up to the general election that class size is an issue and one we want addressed," explained Ms McGowan.

"It is important to have a child taught in a small class. The child can then receive individual attention from the teacher, the teacher has more time to work with pupils and parents and the child has access to a larger portion of resources. The teacher also has time to get to know the pupils better and can intervene more effectively if a child is in difficulty," explained Ms McGowan.

A new curriculum was set out by the Education Department in 1999, however there was not enough money being invested to reduce class sizes and enable teachers to deliver the curriculum she said.

"Research has shown that it is no good reducing classes to between 25 and 30. We want classes to below 20 so we can make a real difference," explained Ms McGowan.

Today Ireland has the second largest average class size in Europe. In Latvia the pupil to teacher ratio is very low and children there are very well prepared for the global economy simply because of the small class sizes.

Ms McGowan said the Government statistics did not reflect the whole picture in each National and secondary school. "For example in Scoil Cholmcille there are 31 qualified teachers. However only 18 teachers are teaching in the main stream school. The other 13 teachers are special needs or resource teachers, many of whom are needed to deal with our mushrooming population of non-English speaking children attending school. At present over 20 percent of the population are non-english speaking and it is a problem that is set to continue. We are delighted with the increase in numbers but the resources must also be there.

"If four children join junior infants at a school tomorrow morning and there are already 30 pupils in the class you have to make room for them. You can't place them in Sixth class where there may be a lower class number. Each child should get the best education and resources available," said Ms McGowan.

"We want to raise awareness of the problem and to ask every parent and potential voter to lobby their local TD's and representatives. When they knock on the door we want people to bring up the issue of class sizes and mobilise our people power now to influence public policy," explained Ms McGowan.

The INTO are targeting each electoral area throughout the country to garner support for their campaign to reduce class sizes. The next INTO public meeting will be held on Monday night in Donegal Town in the Central Hotel at 8pm.

In a press release issued this week, Green Party candidate, Mr Frank Gallagher said the Green Party has pledged to create 2,400 new teaching jobs to cut class sizes. He also outlined the Party promise to introduce a statutory maximum class size of 25 and will provide an additional ¤8 million per year for three years to cover teacher training costs.