Vol. 427 No. 8
32 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for Education if she has satisfied herself that rural schools get their fair share of remedial teachers; if any recent survey was carried out on the matter; and the plans, if any, she has in this vital area of education provision.
Remedial teacher posts are allocated on the basis of priority of need as indicated by the information collected from schools. It is this level of need, rather than any question of location, which determines allocations and the appropriateness of allocations are subject to ongoing review.
In the primary school system one of the results down the years of determining allocations on the basis of need was that large schools in urban areas ranked as higher priorities. According as the available resources were increased over the years however, smaller schools and, in particular, groups of small schools in rural areas, were allocated these posts. In the last allocation of 80 remedial posts in 1991, 220 of the 240 schools which benefited were outside the Dublin-Cork-Limerick city areas. The likelihood is that this trend will continue.
In the case of post-primary schools, over two-thirds of the schools to which remedial teachers have been allocated are situated outside urban areas.
