The Deputy will be aware that I announced some months ago that, with effect from the beginning of the current school year, all second level schools in the free education scheme would have an entitlement to an ex-quota allocation in respect of remedial education.
The actual entitlement of an individual school for a particular school year is determined by the enrolment at the end of the preceding September. Schools with an enrolment of 600 or more pupils qualify for the allocation of a full post while schools with enrolments below 600 qualify for the allocation of 0.5 of a post.
In the vocational sector the teacher allocation is generally determined on a VEC scheme basis rather than on an individual school basis. In the case of County Meath VEC, the teacher allocation for the current school year includes an ex-quota allocation of six wholetime teacher equivalents in respect of remedial. This compares with an allocation of three wholetime teacher equivalents for remedial for the 1998-99 school year. In addition, the scheme has been allocated a number of disadvantaged posts.
It is a matter for the chief executive officer, with the agreement of the VEC, to allocate teaching resources to individual schools in the scheme from within the overall approved allocation.
