Donal Carey
Question:248 Mr. D. Carey asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will approve the appointment of a resource teacher for a cluster of schools, Ballyvaughan, Carron, Fonore and New Quay, County Clare. [20262/01]
Written Answers. - School Staffing.
Resource teacher support is allocated in response to the professionally assessed needs of the individual children involved. Based on assessment reports received in respect of children with special needs attending three of the schools mentioned by the Deputy, my Department recently allocated a total of 15.5 hours per week resource teacher support to these schools. However, my Department has not received a request for resource teacher support in respect of pupils attending Fonore National School. In the event that children attending this school require resource teacher support, the school should apply for the necessary support through the local school inspector. Any such application will be fully considered.
Ned O'Keeffe
Question:249 Mr. N. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will appoint a special needs assistant teacher for a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [20263/01]
An application has been received by my Department for the provision of special support for the pupil in question. My Department's inspectorate is investigating this application. Once the inspectorate has reported, my Department will be in contact with the school authorities.
Billy Timmins
Question:250 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Education and Science if his Department received requests from the Bray Project national school, County Wicklow, or from the parents of children attending this school, expressing concern at the cutbacks in the area of secretarial assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20266/01]
My Department is in receipt of correspondence regarding the issue of secretarial assistance at Bray Project national school. I will reply directly to the correspondence setting out the position as follows.
My Department provides funding towards the cost of secretarial services in primary schools under two separate schemes. One scheme is the 1978 scheme for the employment of school secretaries in primary schools under which my Department meets the full cost of salary. While these posts are fully funded by my Department, the secretaries involved are employees of the individual school authorities. This scheme is being phased out as posts become vacant and no new posts are being created. It has been superseded in the PESP agreement of 1992 by a more extensive grant scheme.
The PESP scheme provides additional per capita grants for primary and secondary schools towards secretarial and caretaking services. These grants are paid as additions to the standard per capita grants. The scheme, by its nature, is flexible and gives boards of management discretion as to the manner in which secretarial and caretaking services are provided. Bray Project national school is currently in receipt of funding towards secretarial and caretaking services under this scheme.
At primary level, I increased the rates of grant by 33% from £30 per pupil to £40 per pupil with effect from January 2000. Furthermore, with effect from September 2000, I extended the scheme to all primary schools. In addition, I have set a minimum grant of £2,400 per annum which is payable to all schools with 60 pupils or less.
These improvements mean that, for the first time, all primary schools now qualify for an annual grant to assist them with the provision of secretarial and caretaking services. The Government's commitment in this regard can also be measured by the fact that the funding allocated for this purpose, which was approximately £5.6 million in 1999, was increased in 2000 to approximately £12.2 million and will be further increased this year to approximately £16.8 million.
Responsibility for the operation of community employment schemes in schools lies with FÁS. In line with a PPF commitment to mainstream certain essential services provided under CE, officials from my Department are in discussions with their counterparts in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment regarding this issue. These discussions are aimed at ensuring that, as CE schemes in schools are phased out, funding equivalent to the amount spent on such schemes would be made available to my Department. The transfer of such moneys to my Department will result in significant improvements in assistance towards ancillary services for schools. The discussions are at an advanced stage and I hope to make a further announcement regarding this matter in the near future.