Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 June 2004
154 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason a school (details supplied) in County Kildare with 206 boys has to share a learning support teacher with another school in view of the fact that such a position is not in accordance with the recommendations in his Department’s guidelines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18034/04]
View answerAs the Deputy is already aware, the school in question currently has the services of a full-time learning support post shared with another school. At present there are approximately 1,531 learning support teachers in the primary system.
My Department continues to review the existing arrangements for the allocation of special educational supports to primary schools. The basic purpose of the review is to ensure that each school has the level of resources required to cater for its pupils with special educational needs.
I am anxious to ensure that the support services are properly targeted at the children who require them and that the substantially increased resources which are being made available in the special educational area have the desired effect of ensuring that all children assessed as having special educational needs receive the support they require.
My Department is currently developing a weighted system of allocation of teaching support for schools to cater for pupils with special needs, including those requiring learning support teaching. This system, as part of which an additional 350 teaching posts will be allocated, will involve two main elements: 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.
Transitional arrangements for the introduction of the weighted system are being developed at present in consultation with representative interests. As soon as those consultations have been completed, the detailed arrangements will be set out in a circular to be issued to schools shortly.
