Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 February 2014
119. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to increase the maximum number of resource teaching hours provided to each pupil; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7431/14]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that this Government is committed to the protection of frontline services for pupils with special educational needs and has maintained and increased provision for this area for this school year, despite requirement to make expenditure reductions elsewhere. There are now over 10,700 additional teachers in schools supporting children with special educational needs, which is more than at any time previously. This is in comparison to 10,305 posts for the 2012/13 school year and 9,950 such posts for the 2011/12 year. For the 2013/14 school year, there are 5730 resource teaching posts allocated to schools by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to support pupils with low incidence special educational needs. This should be compared to an NCSE allocation of 5265 posts in the previous year, or 5175 posts in 2010. For the current school year, in order to meet growing demand from schools for low incidence special educational needs support, 480 additional new resource teaching posts were made available for schools, in order to maintain allocations at their current rate. So the Government has been increasing the overall number of resource teaching posts available in recent years. The Deputy may also be aware that the NCSE recently published comprehensive policy advice on Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools. The advice recommends that under a new resource allocation model proposed by the NCSE in its 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 new allocation model for resource teaching supports for children with Special Educational Needs based on the profiled educational needs of children in schools, and which will aim to ensure that resources are directed to those children and schools who need them most. I understand that the Working Group will report its findings before the end of Spring 2014.
