Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 July 2013
96. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he is considering restructuring the current process of allocating resource teaching posts in favour of a ratio system (details supplied) that would allocate a resource teacher based on the number of mainstream teachers employed in a school. [34054/13]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) recently published comprehensive policy advice on Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools, which is available on its website www.ncse.ie. The NCSE consulted widely with parents of children with special educational needs, representative bodies and the education partners in preparing this policy advice. Inter alia, the report recommends that under the new resource allocation model proposed by the NCSE in the report, children should be allocated additional resources in line with their level of need, rather than by disability category.
I have, as suggested by the Report, requested the NCSE to establish a Working Group to develop a proposal, for consideration, for a `tailored' allocation model, which will underpin a new allocation system for teaching supports for children with Special Educational Needs based on the profiled educational needs of children in schools. Mr Eamonn Stack, who is the NCSE Chairperson, will chair this working group and the group, which will include parents, will begin its work immediately. The group will report to me in September on the progress of its work, to develop advice on how to reform the way the substantial additional educational resources for pupils with special educational needs are allocated in the school system.
