Written Answers. - School Support Staff.
Máirín Quill
Question:
74
Miss Quill
asked the
Minister for Education
the reason a school (details supplied) in County Cork, that was included in the 1994 scheme for disadvantage, has not yet got a concessionary post, a home/school liaison teacher or a remedial teacher; and when such appointments will be made.
[13680/96]
There is no automatic entitlement to concessionary, home-school liaison or remedial teacher posts. Such posts are allocated where resources permit and on the basis of priority.
The Deputy may be aware that I recently launched an important new initiative which seeks to break the cycle of educational disadvantage in selected urban and rural areas. The initiative is in response to reports which I commissioned from the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre.
In line with the recommendations in the reports, a targeted programme of supports is being made available to 25 selected schools in designated areas of disadvantage in the Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford urban areas.
In addition, 25 clusters of small schools with fewer than five teachers, and particulary those in rural areas with high levels of disadvantage, will receive a targeted programme of supports. Schools from all parts of the country with fewer than five teachers are eligible to apply for inclusion in this scheme.
The Education Research Centre has recently been in touch with all the schools in question, inviting their application. The centre will prioritise all applicants in terms of level of need as represented by the data submitted by the schools and will advise my Department of the outcome.
On the basis of the information currently available to my Department, the school in question would be eligible for consideration for support under the scheme and will have recently been invited by the Education Research Centre to submit an application for inclusion in the scheme.
Schools selected as a result of this process will be invited to submit a five year development plan. Each such plan will be required to identify current difficulties and put forward specific proposals and targets for addressing the problem of educational disadvantage. Qualification for support will depend on the submission of suitable development plans.
The school in question currently has the services of a shared remedial teacher. I am not in a position at present to make an additional remedial teacher post available to the school.
