Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 May 2011
208 Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Education and Skills if primary schools will be given a little flexibility in terms of retaining excellent temporary teachers who may not be on the redeployment panel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11729/11]
View answerThe process of allocating teaching resources to schools for 2011/2012 and the arrangements for filling vacant or new teaching posts, including temporary posts, takes place in the context of the EU/IMF Programme of Support for Ireland and the Public Service Agreement 2010/2014. It is necessary for my Department to exercise additional control and reporting measures this year to ensure that the numbers of teachers employed in schools is consistent with the EU/IMF Programme of Support for Ireland.
This requires that all permanent and fixed term positions are in the first instance made available to those surplus teachers with either permanent contracts or contracts of indefinite duration.
The purpose of these changes is to ensure all surplus teachers are absorbed into vacancies that exist in other schools. Flexible redeployment arrangements are required in order to ensure all surplus permanent teachers are redeployed into vacancies. The country simply cannot afford to have surplus teachers in a school while permitting recruitment to take place in another school. The Government is committed to ensuring the delivery of frontline services is protected as much as possible in our education system.
It is the intention of the Department to restore recruitment from fixed-term teachers on the main panels, supplementary panels or public advertisement at the earliest possible opportunity, after all the surplus permanent teachers have been redeployed.
Through these redeployment measures, the Government is committed to ensuring the delivery of frontline services is protected in as much as possible in our education system.
209 Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will examine the case of a school (details supplied) in County Dublin, which is due to lose two posts due to the suppression of resource teachers for Traveller pupils; and the action that can be taken to save these posts for the school. [11731/11]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the decision to withdraw Resource Teachers for Travellers was taken by the previous Government as part of the last Budget. The requirement to make expenditure savings and to ensure that staffing numbers remain within the Public Service Employment Control Framework prevent me from re-visiting this decision.
Resource Teacher for Traveller posts/Teaching Hours for Traveller pupils will be withdrawn, effective from 31st August 2011.
Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching should receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools. All schools should select students for learning support on the basis of priority of need.
Limited alleviation or adjustment measures are being provided to assist schools that have high concentrations of Traveller pupils who were previously supported by Resource Teachers for Travellers.
In respect of DEIS, (Developing Equality of Opportunity in Schools), Traveller enrolments have been included in the valid enrolment for the purpose of allocating additional staffing under DEIS from the 2011/12 school year. The schools involved have already received their staffing allocations for next year.
For schools other than DEIS schools in receipt of enhanced pupil teacher ratios, alleviation measures are being provided to assist schools with high concentrations of Traveller pupils who were previously supported by RTT posts. Any alleviation measures must be considered in the context of the limited resources that are available to my Department. As such, alleviation measures are being concentrated on schools which had 33 or more pupils supported by RTT posts, based on 2009/10 school year enrolments.
210 Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the request from a school (details supplied) in County Dublin for an English teacher as an additional language support post will be granted. [11732/11]
View answerSignificant support is given to schools by way of language support provision. The level of extra teaching support provided in respect of language support to any school is determined by the numbers of eligible pupils enrolled and the associated assessed levels of those pupils' language proficiency. This is done through an annual application process in the Spring/Summer of each year. My Department has received an application for language support in respect of the school referred to by the Deputy for the 2011-2012 school year. All such applications are currently being processed and schools will be notified of the outcome shortly.
