Michael Ring
Question:171 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Education and Science when a person (details supplied) in County Mayo will be given the resource teaching hours recommended by a NEPS educational psychologist. [12567/04]
View answerTuesday, 4 May 2004
Questions (149)
Written answers
I confirm that my Department received an application for special educational needs supports for the pupil referred to by the Deputy.
Applications for special educational resources received between 15 February and 31 August of last year are being considered at present. More than 5,000 such applications were received. Cases involving children who started school last September are being given priority. All such cases were responded to at or before the commencement of the current school year. The balance of more than 4,000 applications has been reviewed by a dedicated team comprising members of the Department's inspectorate and the national educational psychological service. The applications are being considered in the context of the outcome of surveys of special educational resources provision conducted over the past year, approximately. Data submitted by schools as part of the nationwide census of special educational resources provision are also being considered.
The processing of applications is a complex and time-consuming operation. My Department is endeavouring to complete the processing as quickly as possible. My officials will then respond to all applicant schools. Pending a response, schools are advised to refer to circular 24/03, which was issued in September 2003. The circular contains practical advice on how to achieve the most effective deployment of resources already allocated for special educational needs within the school.
The teacher resources outcome for each applicant school will be based on a new weighted system of allocation, which I announced recently. This system, as part of which an additional 350 teaching posts will be allocated, will involve making a staffing allocation to schools based on a predicted incidence of pupils with special educational needs and making individual allocations in the case of children with more acute lower-prevalence special educational needs.
It is expected that the change to a weighted system will bring with it a number of benefits. The new system will reduce the need for individualised educational psychological assessment, reduce the volume of applications to my Department for additional resources for individual pupils and give greater flexibility to schools, which will facilitate the development and implementation of improved systems and procedures in schools to meet the needs of pupils with low achievement and pupils with special educational needs. The detailed arrangements will be set out in a circular to be issued to schools before the end of the current school year. Schools due to receive the additional posts will be notified within this timeframe.