Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir. This is an issue of concern to her locally and I wish to take the opportunity to outline the current position in relation to the staffing of the school.
The Senator may be aware that the staffing of a primary school is determined by the enrolment of the previous year on 30 September. The actual number of mainstream posts sanctioned is determined by reference to a staffing schedule that is finalised each year following discussions with the education partners.
The enrolment at the school in question has decreased from 312 pupils on 30 September 1999 to 299 pupils on 30 September 2000. This latter enrolment will entitle the school to a staffing of a principal and ten mainstream class teachers for the 2001-02 school year. In addition, the school has one learning support teacher, four special class teachers, one concessionary post due to its disadvantaged status, a home-school liaison teacher, a support teacher and a resource teacher. The school will keep all these posts for the coming year.
The House will be aware of the new disadvantaged programme, Giving Children an Even Break, which was launched by the Minister for Education and Science on 4 January 2001 and will run over a three year period and cost £26 million. The programme involves the creation of over 200 new primary teaching posts and the allocation of cash grants to over 2,300 primary schools in respect of disadvantaged pupils. Schools invited to participate in the new programme were identified through a survey of educational disadvantage in primary schools carried out by the Educational Research Centre for the Department last year.
A key condition of participation in the new programme is that the additional resources must be used for the provision of holistic supports for pupils from educationally disadvantaged back grounds. The additional supports to be provided reflect the level of concentration of pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in each school invited to participate in the prograamme.
There are separate urban and rural dimensions to the new programme. Schools categorised as urban with the highest concentrations of at-risk pupils will be supported where necessary over the three year period through staff allocations to implement a pupil-teacher ratio of 20:1 in the junior classes – from infants through to second class – and a pupil-teacher ratio of 29:1, not 28:1 as the Senator mentioned, in senior classes – from third through to sixth classes.
Talbot senior national school is included in the urban dimension of the new programme. Since the school does not have classes below third class, the new reduced PTR for junior classes does not apply in this case. The school is included in the disadvantaged areas scheme since 1985 and, accordingly, already has sufficient staffing to implement a pupil-teacher ratio of 29:1 in its senior classes. In relation to funding, the school is eligible to receive supplementary grant aid of £3,444 in the current year towards the provision of suitable educational supports for the pupils concerned.
Talbot senior national school is in receipt of all entitlements under the new programme to address educational disadvantage in primary schools. I thank the Senator for raising the matter and I hope this information is helpful to her.
