Jim Higgins
Question:222 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Education if she will sanction the provision of a home/school/community liaison teacher, a remedial teacher and a full-time secretary for a school (details supplied) in County Mayo.
Written Answers. - Additional School Appointments.
The school referred to by the Deputy is recognised by my Department as a school serving a disadvantaged area and as such has an additional concessionary teaching post and receives additional capitation funding at the rate of £17 per pupil. As stated in my recent announcement on the 1994 education budget I have allocated an additional 15 co-ordinator posts to the home-school-community liaison scheme with effect from September next. These extra posts will facilitate a significant expansion of the service and the schools were selected from among those in the disadvantaged areas scheme.
I regret that it was not possible on this occasion to include the school mentioned by the Deputy. However, the needs of this school will be considered in any further expansion of this scheme.
I recently announced the appointment of 100 additional remedial posts for primary schools, which will bring the total in place to 1,133. The posts were allocated on the basis of priority of need, following the collection and analysis of data from schools by my Department's primary inspectorate. The school mentioned by the Deputy already has the services of a full-time remedial teacher. Unfortunately, the school's application for an additional remedial post was not successful on this occasion.
I will be keeping the question of further need in this area under review as part of a broader commitment to appoint a substantial number of additional teachers in the coming years. The needs of all schools, including the school mentioned by the Deputy, will be considered in this context.
Under the terms of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress a phased programme of financial assistance by way of a supplementary capitation grant for the provision of caretaking and secretarial services in schools has been introduced from 1 September 1992.
The school in question has benefited under the new scheme and is in receipt of a grant towards the cost of clerical services from September 1993.
I regret that it is not possible to sanction the appointment of a full-time secretary to the school.