Kilcolman national school, County Limerick, made an application to the Department of Education and Science in October last for the appointment of a resource teacher. The school currently shares a remedial teacher with Ardagh and Carrickerry national schools. A number of children were psychologically assessed and a need for the appointment of a resource teacher was identified. The grouping in place for the remedial teacher has been broken up and Kilcolman national school is no longer included. I hope the Minister will consider favourably the school's request for a resource teacher.
Adjournment Matters. - School Staffing.
I thank Senator Cregan for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity to respond to his query regarding the appointment of a resource teacher to Kilcolman national school.
A major new initiative for the integrated education of children with special needs was launched in November 1998. This initiative provided the first ever automatic support for many children with disabilities. The measures involved are aimed at ensuring all children with a special educational need, irrespective of their location or disability, will receive the support they require to participate fully in the education system. The measures extend across the entire spectrum of special needs and deliver extra teaching and child care services to special needs children, whether in groups or individual isolated settings.
The level of response in each case has regard to the number of children and the severity of disability involved. Where a group of special needs children attend an ordinary school or adjacent schools, the support may take the form of full-time teaching or child care support, or both. The resource teacher is an additional post allocated to assist a school or cluster of schools in providing an education which meets the needs and abilities of children assessed as having a disability. Resource teachers are allocated where there is a number of children with special educational needs arising from a disability who have been fully integrated into mainstream national schools and where there are no other adequate support teaching resources available to the children.
Resource teacher posts may be sanctioned on a full-time basis either in a single school or in a cluster of schools provided there are sufficient children with special educational needs arising from a disability to warrant a full-time post. Alternatively, part-time hours may be sanctioned to provide support teaching for individual children where there are sufficient children with special educational needs to warrant allocation of a full-time post or a second post.
The Department of Education and Science is currently investigating the level of resource teaching support required by the school in question. It is expected that the investigation will be completed shortly and the Department will be in touch with the authorities and Kilcolman national school regarding this matter in the near future.
I will take Senator Cregan's points into account and convey his request to my Government colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, and the officials in the Department who will do their utmost to arrive at a positive conclusion as quickly as possible.
The Seanad adjourned at 7.40 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 21 June 2000.