Vol. 497 No. 6
109 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of home-school-community liaison teachers necessary to provide a service to an acceptable standard for all schools designated as disadvantaged at primary and secondary levels. [25868/98]
There are currently 133 home-school-community liaison co-ordinators in place at primary level and a further 84 at second level. The co-ordinators in question currently serve a total of 225 primary schools and 85 second level schools. There are 96 primary schools and 126 second level schools which have disadvantaged status and are not currently included in the home-school-community liaison scheme.
It is estimated that the equivalent of 103 additional teacher appointments would be required to extend the service to all first and second level schools with disadvantaged status. It should be noted that some of the smaller primary schools involved could be adequately catered for on the basis of sharing a co-ordinator with an adjacent school.
