Pat Carey
Question:1214 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will review his decision not to allocate additional teachers to St. Kevin's school, Finglas, Dublin 11. [1885/01]
Written Answers. - School Staffing.
Schools participating in the new programme 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 has been included in the urban dimension of the major new programme launched by me earlier this month to address educational disadvantage. The school will receive supplementary grant aid of £2,431 towards providing additional educational supports for the children concerned. On staffing, it was considered that the school in question has sufficient teaching staff already to implement the maximum class size guidelines of 20:1 in junior classes and 29:1 in senior classes set under the new programme.
I can assure the Deputy that the examination of the enrolment and staffing position of this school took account of the fact that the needs of the children referred to in the details supplied are already being addressed by a separate staffing allocation.
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.
Question No. 1215 answered with Question No. 1132.