The Deputy will be aware that I announced a major expansion of the remedial teaching service to first and second level schools, and my priority was to ensure that all schools, who were without a remedial teaching service, would have access to one with effect from September 1999. This has resulted in a remedial teacher service now being available to all schools with a pupil teacher ratio of 10:1 or above. Schools with a pupil-teacher ratio of below 10:1 are free to make a case for such support to my Department.
In order to facilitate the expansion of the remedial teacher service, the existing service throughout the country was examined to ascertain if it could be extended to include schools that did not have a service.
It was considered appropriate that the general criteria for establishing and retaining a remedial post would include pupils who have been identified as being in the bottom 10th percentile on standardised tests in basis literacy and numeracy. This is in line with the recommendation of the Special Education Review Committee report. The caseload of a remedial teacher would comprise of 40 eligible pupils in the case of a single post, this to be reduced by two pupils for each additional school in the cluster subject to a maximum reduction of eight pupils.
I assure the Deputy that the remedial service in the Kells area, including Carnaross national school, is significantly within these guidelines and that I am satisfied that an acceptable standard of service is available to the pupils concerned.
