Vol. 492 No. 7
352 Mr. U. Burke asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, he has to compensate school management for the loss of teaching hours in schools resulting from the appointment of assistant principals under the PCW agreement in all second level schools; if he will allocate compensatory teachers in schools affected by these measures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15081/98]
Class contact for teachers in second level schools is 22 hours per week. There is no provision in the voluntary secondary sector for a reduction in class contact hours for assistant principals. In the case of vocational, community and comprehensive schools the class contact hours of assistant principals are reduced by four.
The PCW agreement did not provide for a specific additional teaching allocation to be made to school authorities arising from the creation of assistant principal posts. However, the position of individual community and comprehensive schools and vocational education committees will be considered in the context of curricular concessions within available resources.
