John Perry
Question:229 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Education and Science the avenue open to a person (details supplied) in County Sligo to secure a work placement. [17301/04]
View answerTuesday, 15 June 2004
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The higher diploma in special education needs provided by St. Angela's College, Sligo, is designed to meet the continuing professional development training needs of serving teachers. They must be employed to work with pupils with special educational needs in special schools or special classes or as resource teachers in mainstream primary and post-primary schools and other educational services.
The programme is of one year's duration. Time will be divided between the programme venue and teaching in a participant's school and other settings.
To be eligible for the programme a post-primary teacher must be eligible to hold a permanent post in a second level school, must be nominated by the school authority or VEC that has been allocated special class posts, resource posts or resource hours and must spend a minimum of 12 hours per week working with pupils who have special educational needs.
The demand from serving teachers in schools for places on the programme is high. There are no plans to extend beyond its current scope of continuing professional development for serving teachers. In general priority is given to those teachers who hold permanent posts in schools. There is no provision to facilitate applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria.