Dan Neville
Question:753 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Education and Science the criteria to determine eligibility for remedial teaching for students at primary level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11559/02]
Written Answers. - Special Educational Needs.
In 2000, as part of my Department's reading initiative, learning support guidelines were provided to all schools and were aimed at ensuring that all children achieve appropriate levels of literacy and numeracy during the course of their primary education. The learning support guidelines recommend high levels of co-operation between class teachers, learning support teachers and parents in supporting children who are experiencing learning difficulties. In selecting pupils for remedial education, priority should be given to those pupils who achieve scores at or below the 10th percentile. To allow for measurement error, consideration may be given to selecting pupils who achieve scores up to and including the 12th percentile. Once schools are satisfied that the needs of pupils who have very low achievement or serious learning difficulties have been met, a limited degree of flexibility may be exercised in the deployment of the learning support teacher.
The principal teacher has overall responsibility for the school's learning-support programme and for the operation of services for children with special educational needs. Once a pupil has come to the attention of the school because of low achievement or learning difficulties, it is possible for the class teacher, in the context of ongoing contact with the pupil's parents, to make them aware of the situation and to ascertain the parent's views about the child's performance at school; outline school practices regarding the administration of diagnostic tests by the learning-support teacher; outline the support that is available to the pupils in school whose achievement is low and/or who experience learning difficulties; seek the parents' approval to proceed with the diagnostic assessment, which may lead to supplementary teaching, and indicate that a meeting between the parents and the learning support teacher will take place following the diagnostic assessment and prior to the commencement of supplementary teaching. If, following diagnostic assessment, it is agreed that the pupil should receive remedial teaching, the parents can contribute to the development and implementation of their child's individual profile and learning programme by discussing the learning targets for their child and by identifying activities that can be implemented at home to support the work of the school in achieving the agreed targets.