Vol. 502 No. 5
93 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will sanction a full-time permanent remedial teacher for the Salesian College, Celbridge, County Kildare; if he will sanction a home and school liaison officer for the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8657/99]
I recently announced a major new funding initiative for the education sector. As a core element of this, a total of 225 new second level teachers will be appointed this year. These new teachers will enable a move towards the provision of an automatic remedial resource in all schools and home-school-community liaison in all second level schools currently designated as disadvantaged. Under this initiative, Salesian College, Celbridge will be allocated a full remedial post with effect from the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year. In the current school year, of the 762 schools at second level, 190 schools have been allocated disadvantaged posts and qualify for disadvantaged status on that basis.
While I have no proposals at present for designating further schools as disadvantaged, I can assure the Deputy that the position of Salesian College, Celbridge will receive full consideration in the context of any future review of the disadvantaged and home-school-community liaison schemes.
A study of educational disadvantage conducted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre in 1996 concluded that disadvantage status should be confined to 16 per cent of the school-going population. The study noted that such status had already been granted to 17 per cent of pupils. As an alternative to extending the disadvantaged area scheme to additional schools, the study recommended that available resources be targeted on the most disadvantaged schools.
