Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 June 2004
135 Mr. N. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the appointment of a special needs assistant at a primary school in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork and the increase in the number of hours which the person receives with the resource teacher. [17971/04]
View answerI can confirm that my Department has received an application for five hours resource teaching support and full time special needs assistant support for the pupil referred to by the Deputy. The position is that SER applications received between 15 February and 31 August 2003, including an application for the pupil in question, are being considered. In all, more than 5,000 such applications were received. Priority was given to cases involving children starting school last September which 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. 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, 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 recently announced new weighted system of allocation. This system, as part of which an additional 350 teaching posts will be allocated, will involve two main elements: first, making a staffing allocation to schools based on a predicted incidence of pupils with special educational needs; and second, 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 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 in consultation with representative interests. As soon as these are completed, the detailed arrangements for processing applications for resources, including those for special needs assistants and those received after 31 August 2003, will be set out in a circular to be issued to schools shortly.
136 Mr. B. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Education and Science when the recommended ten hours per week special assistance is likely to be made available to a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [17972/04]
View answerMy Department allocates resource posts and special needs assistant posts to second level schools to cater for students with special educational needs. Applications for such support are made to my Department by the relevant school authorities. Each application is considered on the basis of the assessed needs of the pupils involved and the nature and level of the support provided is determined on the advice of the national educational psychological service. Special needs assistant support is generally made available where the student has special care needs.
The school in question has been allocated 1.95 wholetime equivalent resource posts and 3.56 special needs assistant posts to cater for the special needs of students enrolled, including the student referred to by the Deputy. It is a matter for the school to deploy this allocation and also review this deployment in line with the evolving needs of the students.
