Vol. 561 No. 1
276 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has received a copy of a detailed assessment of the needs of children with dyslexia; and the time frame in which he hopes to implement the recommendations. [3527/03]
277 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that many primary schools do not have sufficient resources to give support to children with dyslexia and, as a result, parents are having to pay very high private fees for additional support; and if he will review the basis on which support is made to primary schools to provide service to children with dyslexia. [3528/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 276 and 277 together.
All children in the primary system who have been assessed as having special educational needs, including children with dyslexia, have an automatic entitlement to a response to their needs irrespective of their level of need or location. The nature and level of the support provided is based on the professionally assessed needs of the individual child.
Children with dyslexia are generally catered for on an integrated basis in ordinary primary schools where they can be supported by the learning support teacher service or the resource teacher service. At present, there are approximately 2,300 resource teachers and 1,531 learning support teachers in the primary system. Where the condition is of a more serious nature, provision can be made in one of the four special schools or 23 special classes attached to ordinary primary schools and dedicated to the needs of children with dyslexia. Decisions on placements are based on the professionally assessed needs of the individual child and parental wishes in relation to their children.
All special schools and special classes dedicated to children with dyslexia operate at a reduced pupil teacher ratio of 9:1 and pupils attending such facilities attract a special increased rate of capitation funding. My Department also provides funding to schools for the purchase of specialised equipment such as computers to assist children with special needs with their education, including children with dyslexia. Grant aid is also provided to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland to support its work with persons with dyslexia.
The report of the task force on dyslexia contains over 60 individual recommendations ranging across a wide variety of issues from identification and assessment, to models of service delivery, specialist training for service providers and issues relating to structural reforms. Since the task force reported, a number of initiatives have been taken in the area of dyslexia. These include the introduction of the first ever on-line training course for teachers catering for pupils with dyslexia, the appointment of ten new learning support trainers to the primary curriculum support programme specifically to provide in-depth support for the implementation of learning support guidelines for children with dyslexia, and a reduction from 11:1 to 9:1 in the pupil teacher ratio applicable to special classes catering for children with dyslexia.
278 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the funding which he is making available to the Dyslexia Association to fund its support programmes for teaching and for parents of children with dyslexia; and his views on whether there is scope for further development of the approaches pioneered by the Dyslexia Association. [3529/03]
In 2002, my Department provided funding support of €134,500 to the Dyslexia Association. Total funding amounting to €493,852 has been provided to the association since 1997. The association has recently submitted an application for additional funding to support a programme aimed at further developing services for persons with dyslexia. My Department's inspectorate will shortly undertake a review of this programme and my officials will be in contact with the association to make the necessary arrangements. A decision on the funding application will be made following this review.
