Written Answers Nos. 242-261
242. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to introduce a postgraduate loan scheme; if he intends to include private sector sponsorship as part of this plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40647/13]
View answerI have no plans at present to introduce a loan scheme for postgraduate students. A number of financial institutions offer loans to assist students with costs associated with their studies. Following discussions with my Department, with support and advice from the National Treasury Management Agency, a specific loan initiative was introduced by Bank of Ireland in 2012 to provide finance for fees and living costs for postgraduate students.
243. Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 386 of 18 September 2013, if he will review his reply and advise this Deputy on the school transport arrangements in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Offaly where there is no bus route to the school in their nearest catchment area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40726/13]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that children are eligible for post primary school transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kms from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language. Bus Éireann, which operates the school transport scheme, has advised that an existing service can be extended to facilitate eligible children residing in the area in question should they wish to attend their nearest school.
244. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of persons currently in receipt of a student maintenance grant at third level. [40745/13]
View answer245. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of persons from a farming background currently in receipt of a student maintenance grant. [40747/13]
View answer246. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of persons from a self-employed background currently in receipt of a student maintenance grant. [40748/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 244 to 246, inclusive, together.
The number of students (both new and renewal) who received student grants (which may include maintenance or fees) for the academic year 2011/12 was 76,644. Of these 67,650 were in higher education and 8,994 in further education. Data has traditionally been collated on a socio-economic background of new awards and not on the basis of whether a student came from a self-employed background. The attached table shows the percentage of new awards (which may include maintenance and/or fees) made to students in higher education from the different socio economic categories for the academic year 2011/12.
This indicative data is subject to considerable qualification for interpretation purposes in relation to the reliability due to, inter alia, the level of undeclared status among the returns from the awarding authorities and the provision of accurate and or/adequate information in respect of occupation by the principal earner to enable the awarding authorities to classify them by socio-economic background. The information contained in the table has been supplied to my Department by the awarding authorities who submitted a return.
My Department is currently analysing the data received in the 2012/13 annual statistical return from the grant awarding authorities and the final data in respect of 2012/13 in respect of overall numbers in receipt of a maintenance grant and the socio economic background of new awardees will be available in the coming weeks.
Breakdown of New Awards of Grants in Higher Education for 2011/12 academic year by Socio Economic Categories
|
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
Z |
Total |
|
Employers & Managers |
Higher Professional |
Lower Professional |
Non-Manual |
Manual Skilled |
Semi-Skilled |
Unskilled |
Own Account Workers |
Farmers |
Agricultural Workers |
All Others gainfully occupied & unknown |
|
|
2.53% |
2.02% |
11.12% |
13.84% |
9.73% |
5.37% |
7.19% |
8.41% |
5.00% |
0.52% |
34.27% |
100.00% |
251. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in the country with five teachers. [40753/13]
View answer252. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in the country with four teachers. [40754/13]
View answer253. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in the country with three teachers. [40755/13]
View answer254. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in the country with two teachers. [40756/13]
View answer255. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in the country with one teacher. [40757/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 251 to 255, inclusive, together.
Data on the number of teachers in each primary school in 2013-2014 is available in the table Class Size Information at Individual Primary School Level on the Department's website at the link: http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Statistics/Data-on-Individual-Schools/. That table shows 12 schools with 1 mainstream class teacher, 573 schools with 2 mainstream class teachers, 469 schools with 3 mainstream class teachers, 478 schools with 4 mainstream class teachers and 258 schools with 5 mainstream class teachers.
256. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline in tabular form the number of learning support teachers in our schools this year and every year since 1997. [40758/13]
View answerThere is detailed historical information contained in the Statistics Section of my Department's website relating to the number of teaching posts in schools. The most recent published information relates to the 2012/2013 school year. There are circa 4,100 learning/language support posts in place in primary schools and circa 730 posts in post primary schools in the current school year. The arrangements for how schools access GAM/EAL (learning/language support) hours are set out in the published staffing arrangements available on the Department website.
257. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline in tabular form the number of resource teachers in our schools this year and every year since 1997. [40759/13]
View answerThere is detailed historical information contained in the Statistics Section of my Department's website relating to the number of teaching posts in schools. The most recent published information relates to the 2012/2013 school year. The NCSE has notified all schools of their allocation of resource hours for low incidence special needs for the 2013/14 school year and has published this information on its website. The arrangements for how schools access these resource hours in teaching posts are set out in the published staffing arrangements for schools available on the Department website. Under these arrangements there are circa 3,000 resource posts at primary level and circa 2,310 resource posts at post primary level in the current school year.
258. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline in tabular form the number of special needs assistants in our schools this year and every year since 1997. [40760/13]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports including Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of such supports and the staffing resources available to my Department.
There are 10,575 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) SNA posts available for allocation in the 2013/14 school year which is the same number of posts which were available for allocation for the 2012/13 school year. The NCSE has notified schools of their SNA allocation for 2013/14, based on the number of valid applications received and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children. To date the NCSE has allocated 10,490 WTE SNA posts to schools. Every child who meets the criteria for access to SNA support in the current school year is in receipt of this support. The remaining posts are available for allocation throughout the school year for new assessments of disability, new entrants, or emergency or late applications, in accordance with the terms of the SNA scheme. The specific information requested by the Deputy in relation to the number of SNAs allocated since 1997 is provided in the attached table.
|
Year |
Number of Special Needs Assistants 1997 - 2013 |
|
*1997 |
270 |
|
*1998 |
293 |
|
*1999 |
558 |
|
*2000 |
1495 |
|
2001 |
2988 |
|
2002 |
4979 |
|
2003 |
5367 |
|
2004 |
5869 |
|
2005 |
7294 |
|
2006 |
8390 |
|
2007 |
9824 |
|
2008 |
10,442 |
|
2009 |
10,342 |
|
2010 |
10,543 |
|
**2011 |
10,117 (10,320) |
|
***2012 |
10390 (10,487) |
|
# 2013 |
10,490 |
* SNA data from 1997 – 2001 relates to Primary and Special Schools only.
** Total number of SNA posts approved by the NCSE for the 2011/12 school year was 10,320. The figure of 10,117 represents the number of posts in place at the end of Dec 2011. By the end of the 2011/12 school year, at June 2012, the NCSE had approved the allocation of 10,320 SNA posts to schools, from within the overall cap of 10,575 posts.
*** Total number of SNA posts approved by the NCSE for the 2012/13 school year was 10,487. The figure of 10,390 represents the number of posts in place at the end of Dec 2012. By the end of the 2012/13 school year, at June 2013, the NCSE had approved the allocation of 10,487 SNA posts to schools, from within the overall cap of 10,575 posts.
# Number of SNA posts allocated as at September 2013.
259. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline in tabular form the amount of funding given to special schools and to mainstream schools with special classes in each year since the funding was introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40761/13]
View answer260. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of special schools in the country. [40762/13]
View answer261. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of mainstream schools with special classes in the country. [40763/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 259 to 261, inclusive, together.
I 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. This policy advice details that there are currently 119 special schools in Ireland. Details of these special schools are provided on a per County basis at Appendix 1, Table 19 of this report, which is available on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie. The NCSE have also published details of the number of special classes which are being provided in mainstream schools for the 2013/14 school year. 740 Special Classes are being provided for mainstream schools for the current school year. This figure includes 118 new special classes which are being opened this year. Details of all these classes, listed on a per county basis, are also available on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie.
I wish to advise the Deputy that Special schools and special classes attached to mainstream schools are funded by a variety of different funding mechanisms, including provision for teaching staff, Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), assistive technology support, building refurbishments, and capitation. The amount of funding provided for special schools and classes therefore varies throughout the year, for example, as new teachers or SNAs are allocated to schools or classes, as new pupils are enrolled, or as new classes are established. Special schools and classes therefore do not receive an annual block funding grant, or an annual allocation of funding. As such, I must advise that the information requested by the Deputy in relation to the funding given to special schools and to special schools with mainstream classes each year is not readily available within my Department.
I wish to advise the Deputy that this Government has defended and maintained provision for special educational spending since coming into office. Some €1.3 billion – will be spent in support of children with Special Educational Needs this year. This level of investment, which represents approximately 15% of the entire educational spend of my Department, is in line with expenditure in recent years and shows that despite the current economic difficulties, funding for special education has not been cut.
