Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 May 2004
121 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Education and Science if and when a special needs assistant will be allocated to a school (details supplied) in County Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13985/04]
View answerMy Department has no record of having received an application for a special needs assistant from the school referred to by the Deputy. Any application received will be considered in the context of the criteria set out in the relevant Department circulars and the existing level of SER provision in the school.
122 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Education and Science if a resource teacher will be allocated for persons at Stoneyford national school, County Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13987/04]
View answerI can confirm that my Department received applications for special educational resources, SER, for the school referred to by the Deputy. The position is that SER applications received between 15 February and 31 August 2003 are being considered at present. In all, more than 5,000 such applications were received. Priority was given to cases involving children starting school last September and all these 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 my Department's inspectorate and the National Educational Psychological Service, or NEPS. These applications are being further considered in the context of the outcome of surveys of SER provision conducted over the past year and the data submitted by schools as part of a nationwide census of SER provision.
The processing of the applications is a complex and time-consuming operation. However, my Department is endeavouring to have this completed as quickly as possible and my officials will then respond to all applicant schools. Pending a response, schools are advised to refer to circular 24/03, which issued in September 2003. This circular contains practical advice on how to achieve the most effective deployment of resources already allocated for special educational needs within the school. In the case of teacher resources, the 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 two main elements. The first element is to make a staffing allocation to schools based on a predicted incidence of pupils with special educational needs and the second is to make 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 for processing applications for resources, including applications for next September will be set out in a circular to be issued to schools before the end of the current school year. It is also intended that schools due to receive the additional posts will be notified within this timeframe.
