Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 July 2012
144 Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason he considers it appropriate to discriminate against only those girls who attend an all girls primary school here in terms of learning support allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36115/12]
View answerI understand the Deputy is referring to the General Allocation Model (GAM) of additional teaching supports which are allocated to all Primary schools to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs.
As I have previously advised the Deputy, differing pupil teacher ratios are applied under the GAM in relation to boys, girls and mixed schools in order to account for differentials of prevalence of learning difficulty between boys and girls.
The rationale for the differing ratios is based on international literature on the incidence of disability as well as international and national surveys of literacy and numeracy which indicate that there is a greater incidence of disability/learning difficulty in boys than girls.
The NCSE Report on the Implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, of 2006, also examined a range of sources to establish prevalence rates, including national databases, local and international studies and expert estimates, which indicated significantly higher rates of Mild General Learning Difficulty and Specific Learning Disability prevailing in boys, in comparison to girls.
Revised arrangements which will update schools' GAM allocations with effect from September 2012, based on the number of class teaching posts in schools for the previous year, reflect the existing arrangements for the allocation of supports under the GAM. The pupil teacher ratios which had previously applied are set out in my Departments Circular SP ED 02/05, which is available on www.education.ie.
