Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2004
208 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the problems being created at a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33891/04]
View answerThe school in question currently has the services of two full-time resource teachers, one part-time resource teacher and two full-time learning support teachers. One of the learning support teaching posts was originally sanctioned on the basis of a sharing arrangement with another school. Following a reorganisation of the shared learning support cluster in October 2004, it was decided to allocate the second learning support teaching post to the school on a full-time basis.
The appropriate level of resource teaching support in the school will be addressed in the context of the proposed new system of allocation of resource teaching support in primary schools. The proposed system involves a general allocation to all primary schools to cater for pupils with higher incidence special educational needs, that is, pupils with borderline mild and mild general learning disability and specific learning disability. The allocation is also intended to support those with learning support needs, that is, those functioning at or below the tenth percentile on a standardised test of reading and/or mathematics. An additional 350 teacher posts are being provided to facilitate the introduction of the new system.
I am conscious of difficulties that could arise with this model, particularly for children in small and rural schools, if it were implemented as currently proposed. Accordingly, I am having the proposed model reviewed to ensure that it provides an automatic response for pupils with common mild learning disabilities, without the need for cumbersome individual applications, while at the same time ensuring that pupils currently in receipt of service continue to receive the level of service appropriate to their needs. The review will involve consultation with representative interests and the National Council for Special Education before it is implemented next year.
Individual applications may continue to be made for specific resource teacher allocations in respect of pupils with lower incidence special educational needs.
