Vol. 550 No. 4
716 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the provision of a co-ordination teacher at four group schools in Connemara, County Galway, at Roundstone, Cashel, Ballyconneely and Aillebrack; if this post has been sanctioned; and when the required personnel will be appointed to take up this post. [8531/02]
The four schools in question have been included in the rural dimension of the new programme, Giving Children An Even Break, which I launched last year to deal with educational disadvantage in primary schools. The programme will be run over a three year period and will cost some €33 million with the allocation of over 200 extra teaching posts.
The schools targeted under Giving Children An Even Break were identified through a comprehensive and objective survey of all primary schools carried out by the educational research centre, Drumcondra, on my Department's behalf. All schools included in Giving Children An Even Break are receiving supplementary grant aid towards providing additional educational supports for the pupils concerned.
Rural schools, such as the schools referred to by the Deputy, with the highest concentration of pupils with characteristics that are associated with educational disadvantage have been clustered into groups of four to five and each cluster is entitled to the services of a teacher-co-ordinator to work with the schools in relation to the needs of the pupils concerned. The four schools in question have been included in a rural cluster in County Galway.
Guidelines for the appointment of a co-ordinator were forwarded to each of the four schools in the cluster in January of this year. Schools have been advised to notify my Department once a suitably qualified teacher has been selected for the co-ordinator post. To date, my Department has not received any notification from the cluster regarding the appointment of a co-ordinator.
Question No. 717 answered with Question No. 714.
