Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 25 Feb 1992

Vol. 416 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Remedial Teachers for Dublin Schools.

Mr. McCartan

My cause is very simple and straightforward and I hope it will receive an equally simple and straightforward response from the Minister of State. For some years now, going back to the early eighties, both the Burrow national school, Dublin 13, and the Springdale national school, Dublin 5, have attempted to convince the Department of Education that they should be each assigned a remedial teacher for their urgent needs. They have had little or no success. Recently the two schools have taken the very innovative approach of making a joint appeal to the Department in the hope that their case, thereby strengthened, would receive an immediate, if not favourable, response. Their cause should be dealt with compassionately by the Department and a remedial teacher should be assigned to both schools. They are in the same constituency of Dublin North East but they are quite a distance from each other. Nonetheless, the schools have discussed this matter and the boards of management have agreed that they can work out a rota scheme of co-operation between them. Their innovative approach should be rewarded by a favourable response.

I am advised that the Burrow national school in Sutton has on the roll 200 students and of those it is estimated that 41 require remedial teaching. In Springdale school in Raheny there are 182 on the roll and 30 of the students require remedial help. On average 18 per cent of the pupils in the two schools require this service. At the moment they can rely only on part-time remedial help paid for through the contributions from the parents of the pupils in the schools. This is clearly not satisfactory.

The immediate adjoining areas of Howth, Baldoyle and Raheny have been surveyed and it seems they are the only two schools in the entire district without any remedial service from the Department of Education. It is coincidential, but they are the only two Church of Ireland schools in the same area. I do not suggest that there is any sinister conclusion to be drawn from this but it is an unfortunate coincidence that the two schools without remedial support from the Department are Church of Ireland schools servicing the constituency. The parents of pupils in both schools make substantial voluntary contributions towards maintaining the service. Both schools are handicapped in that their principals are working principals within the school. In larger schools there is flexibility in that principals working in an administrative capacity can on occasion release other teachers for specialist remedial teaching practices. For those reasons the Minister should respond favourably to these schools.

In response to recent correspondence I received a reply from the Minister indicating that of the 80 positions allocated for the current year all posts had been filled and this news has been conveyed to the schools. They accept and appreciate that but they hope that having put on the record of the House the special needs and the case of the two schools now combined in their cause, the Minister will give some indication that in the next allocation of posts, they will receive consideration in view of the reasons I have advanced on their behalf.

Minister of State at the Department of Education (Mr. Aylward)

Remedial education at primary level is a matter in the first instance for the ordinary class teachers. The majority of pupils with remedial needs would, therefore, be helped within the scope of the normal service. However, it is acknowledged that remedial teachers constitute the main additional resources for addressing the problem of underachievement in primary schools. It was with this in mind that 80 posts were allocated for remedial purposes out of the quota of posts made available under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress in 1991.

These appointments were made following the collection of data and information from schools by the Department's primary inspectorate. The posts were then allocated on the basis of priority of need, as indicated by the information collected.

The 1991 allocation of 80 remedial posts brings the total of such posts in primary schools to 945. These 80 posts enabled a remedial service to be provided to an additional 242 primary schools. The overall position now is that, of the 3,235 ordinary national schools in the country, approximately 1,400 have the services of a remedial teacher either on a full-time or shared basis. At this stage, all primary schools which sought a remedial service with enrolments above 420 have at least one remedial teacher and many more smaller schools have the service on a shared basis.

Unlike ordinary class teaching posts, which must be filled where the prescribed numbers of pupils have been enrolled there is not an automatic allocation of remedial teaching posts each year. The availability of such posts depends on the overall level of resources available to my Department.

The appointment of further remedial teachers will be kept under review, and, in that connection, I can assure the Deputy that the needs of the schools referred to by him will be borne in mind when the next set of allocations are being made.