157. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth the specific actions her Department is taking to address overcrowded classrooms, particularly where it is impacting the effective delivery of the updated social, personal and health education curriculum, including drug education modules at secondary level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11012/26]

Hildegarde Naughton, Minister for Education and Youth: The Department of Education and Youth works together with the Department of Health and other agencies to support students in the area of health. The aim is to equip students with the skills and knowledge to enable them to make the right choices for healthy lifestyles throughout their lives.

Schools have a role to play in supporting their students to develop the key skills and knowledge to enable them to make informed choices when faced with a range of difficult issues. This is mainly done through the Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme.

The Department has undertaken a very significant reform of the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum, following on from a review by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) across primary and post-primary.

An updated Junior Cycle SPHE specification was rolled out in schools from September 2023. The Junior Cycle SPHE specification includes five learning outcomes in relation to substance abuse.

An updated Senior Cycle SPHE specification was introduced in September 2025 for those entering Leaving Certificate Applied, replacing older modules within LCA Social Education. Post-Primary schools have until September 2027 to introduce the specification for other students entering fifth year, to accommodate the necessary planning and preparatory work. It includes three learning outcomes on the issue of substance abuse.

The Wellbeing specification of the new Primary curriculum, including SPHE, was published in September 2025. This specification also includes learning outcomes for older Primary children in relation to substance misuse prevention.

The changes to the curriculum are designed to give students an age and stage appropriate reference to consider and reflect upon issues related to drug use, amongst many other topics.

Online toolkits are published on curriculumonline.ie where teachers can access SPHE teaching and learning resources for all levels in primary and post-primary. Teachers can choose from a significant suite of resources to support them in preparing for and teaching SPHE. These resources include those in relation to substance misuse, all of which are subject to update and review as the curriculum is rolled-out.

Teacher allocations to all schools are approved annually in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. The criteria for the allocation of posts are communicated to school managements annually and are available on the Department website.

Currently the staffing schedule for post-primary mainstream pupil teacher ratio is set at 19:1 for free education schools. This allows schools to determine the best possible configuration of classes and the deployment of classroom teachers to meet the local school level requirements, which can be impacted by a number of factors, including subject demand and size of local community