Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 6 Mar 2001

Vol. 532 No. 1

Written Answers. - School Staffing.

Billy Timmins

Question:

359 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Education and Science if his Department has received an application for an additional teacher under the disadvantaged areas scheme from a school (details supplied) in County Carlow; if he will agree to the request; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6544/01]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

The school referred to by the Deputy already benefits from inclusion in the disadvantaged areas scheme. By virtue of its inclusion in that scheme, the school has been allocated a disadvantaged concessionary teaching post and the services of a shared home-school-community liaison co-ordinator.

The Deputy may be aware that the new programme, Giving Children An Even Break, which I launched on 4 January last, will run over three years and will cost some £26 million. The programme involves the creation of 204 new primary teaching posts and the allocation of cash grants to more than 2,300 primary schools in respect of disadvantaged pupils. A key condition of participation in the new programme is that the additional resources must be used for the provision of holistic supports for pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. 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.

There are separate urban and rural dimensions to the new programme and the school in question has been included in the rural dimension. The school will receive supplementary grant aid of £1,064 towards providing additional educational supports for the pupils concerned. Rural schools with the highest concentration of pupils with characteristics that are associated with educational disadvantage have been allocated the services of a teacher-co-ordinator who will work in clusters of four or five schools. However, certain schools in this group, including the school referred to by the Deputy, are isolated from other similar schools and it was not possible to include them in a cluster. In such cases, these schools will receive financial supports as an alternative to teacher-co-ordinator support.

Individual schools which are concerned about the outcome of the survey in respect of their school 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.