Vol. 541 No. 4
536 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which he has responded to requirements as set out by school management authorities regarding resource teachers at primary and secondary level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23277/01]
541 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which he proposes to increase the availability of resources for special needs children in mainstream education at primary and post-primary levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23282/01]
542 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which he has met requirements regarding the provision of resource teachers at primary and post-primary level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23283/01]
543 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which he has met the requirements regarding classroom assistants in primary and post-primary schools; whether it is intended to take any action to augment the numbers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23284/01]
544 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Science the degree to which he has put in place special needs teachers in primary and post-primary schools; the extent to which such provision meets requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23285/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 536, 541, 542, 543 and 544 together.
The Deputy will be aware that on my appointment as Minister for Education and Science in January 2000 I made the tackling of disadvantage and disability a priority. With the full support of the Government dramatic and unprecedented advances have been made over the past two and a half years. All children with special needs within the primary system now have an automatic entitlement to a response to their needs irrespective of their location or the level of need involved.
The required response may take the form of resource teacher support or special needs assistant support or both, depending on the professionally assessed needs of the individual children. To date, as a result of this development the number of resource teachers supporting special needs children in primary schools has been increased from 104 to approximately 1,000. The number of special needs assistants supporting children with special needs has been increased from less than 300 to approximately 2,500 over the same period. Further resource teacher and special needs assistant posts will continue to be allocated in response to identified needs. All schools have been advised of the procedures to be followed in seeking resource teacher or special needs assistant support.
At second level, my Department allocates resource posts, child care assistant posts and concessionary teaching hours to ordinary second level schools to cater for special needs pupils. Applications for such support are made to my Department by the relevant school authorities. Each case is considered on its merits and determined on the advice of the psychological service. In the last school year, 240 resource posts, 135 child care assistant posts and the equivalent of approximately 142 whole time teacher posts in concessionary teaching hours were allocated to ordinary second level schools to cater for pupils with special needs. We will continue to make further such resources available in response to identified needs.
