Vol. 529 No. 1
1209 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will review the resources offered to a school (details supplied) in County Kilkenny under the new Breaking the Cycle programme; and if he will approve the appointment of an additional teacher to this school for the remainder of the school year. [1797/01]
Schools participating in the new pro gramme are eligible to receive a range of additional supports to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils. The additional supports to be provided reflect the level of concentration of pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in each school invited to participate in the programme.
The school in question is included in the rural dimension of the programme and is eligible to receive supplementary grant aid of £1,189 towards the provision of suitable educational supports for the pupils concerned. To assist schools in making the best use of the extra resources, I am appointing a director of programmes to tackle disadvantage, assisted by a support team. This team will provide training in the understanding of educational disadvantage and the delivery of targeted supports.
Schools invited to participate in the new programme were identified through a survey of educational disadvantage in primary schools carried out by the educational research centre for my Department last year. Where individual schools are concerned about the outcome of the survey in respect of their school, they may make a submission to my Department outlining their circumstances. These submissions will be referred to the ERC for consideration. The situation of these schools will then be considered further.
The staffing of a primary school for a particular year is determined by reference to the number of pupils enrolled in the school on 30 September of the previous year. The actual number of mainstream posts sanctioned is determined by reference to a staffing schedule. The staffing schedule is determined for a particular year following discussions with the managerial authorities and the INTO.
The current staffing of this particular school is a principal and two mainstream class teachers based on an enrolment of 82 as at 30 September 1999. This school was one pupil short of the retention figure for the third teaching post last year, hence the drop in staffing numbers to principal and two teachers. Unfortunately, the agreed staffing schedule must be adhered to and I cannot therefore sanction an additional post on that basis.
