Vol. 435 No. 10
172 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education if she will make a statement on the home/school/community liaison scheme as to the number of teaching posts involved, the number of hours being given to new post primary schools entering the scheme, and when a full assessment of the pilot scheme will be completed and published.
At present there are 106 primary and 38 post-primary schools in the home/school/liaison scheme. This includes 27 primary schools and 12 post-primary schools newly included in the scheme at the commencement of the current school year. This extension was made possible by the appointment of an additional 27 co-ordinators to the scheme in 1993. The scheme now has a total 98 locally-based co-ordinators working under the direction of a National Coordinator.
The post-primary schools concerned have been allocated 11 part-time teaching hours each per week to assist them to participate in this scheme. The allocation is additional to the concessionary teaching post for the alleviation of disadvantage which has already been allocated to each of the second level schools concerned.
The final evaluation report on the pilot phase of this scheme is currently being completed by the Education Research Centre, St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra. I expect to receive this report early in the New Year. I will consider the question of publication at that stage.
