Vol. 384 No. 7
asked the Minister for Education if she regards the teaching of a continental language in Kildare vocational schools as important from an educational and economic viewpoint; the facilities for teaching German and French which are available to Kildare vocational school students; the total number of children seeking and receiving such tuition; if she will outline her long term proposals in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
80.
asked the Minister for Education if she has finalised her consideration of the latest request from Kildare Vocational Education Committee for the allocation of extra teachers to the committee; if her attention has been drawn to the need for an urgent review of the situation; when she will inform the Vocational Education Committee of her decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 78 and 80 together.
The allocation of teaching staff to County Kildare VEC in respect of full time day courses in the second level area for the school session 1988-89 has been revised on a number of occasions by my Department.
The initial allocation of teaching staff was issued by my Department to County Kildare VEC on 14 July last. Since that date, following consideration of a number of appeals, the committee's teacher allocation has been increased by a total of 8.8 wholetime teacher equivalents. I am not at present in a position to authorise any further increase in the committee's allocation of teaching staff.
The organisation of the committee's educational programme and the deployment of its teaching resources are matters to be determined by the committee itself within the parameters of the authorised allocation.
