Written Answers Nos. 213-220
213. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of incidents of school bullying, including cyberbullying, reported to her Department by the primary and-or post-primary sectors over the past year; the extent to which it has been found possible to address the issue to date; her plans for the future; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48607/14]
View answer214. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Minister for Education and Skills the measures that have been taken in the past year to deal with cyberbullying; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48608/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 213 and 214 together.
The Action Plan on Bullying, which was published in January 2013, sets out my Department's approach to tackling bullying in schools. These actions focus on support for schools, teacher training, research and awareness raising and aim to ensure that all forms of bullying, including cyberbullying, are addressed.
As part of the implementation of the Action Plan, new National Anti-Bullying Procedures for schools, which include a specific reference to cyberbullying, were published in September 2013 and are currently being implemented by all 4,000 primary and post primary schools in the country. Training materials for parents, teachers and Boards of Management are also being developed and rolled out.
The recommended approach is for schools to aim to prevent bullying in schools and, where it does happen, to take the steps required to address the issue at local level. There is no obligation on school authorities to report incidents of bullying to my Department and my Department does not collate data on individual bullying incidents.
My Department supports Safer Internet Day, an initiative that addresses internet safety issues, including cyber-bullying, for young people. In addition awareness-raising initiatives on cyberbullying including "Up2Us", a new resource to tackle cyberbullying, are provided through the internet safety initiative, Webwise. An Up2Us Social Media Roadshow to help teenagers adopt best practice in terms of social media engagement was run in collaboration with Beat 102-103 over a 5 week period from mid-October 2014.
A study on "The Prevalence and Impact of Bullying Linked to Social Media on the Mental Health and Suicidal Behaviour among Young People", which was commissioned by my Department and the National Office for Suicide Prevention, was published in May 2014. The review notes that as cyberbullying appears to be closely tied to traditional bullying, it is likely that already established anti-bullying interventions will also impact on cyberbullying and that entirely new programmes are not necessary.
Central to promoting safer use of the Internet by young people is a strong commitment to changing behaviour and raising the knowledge, skills and attitudes around preventing, responding to and reporting cyberbullying incidents. The continued implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying will increase capacity in these areas and build on my Department's current strategy to ensure that internet safety is mainstreamed throughout schools' teaching, learning and other practices.
215. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Minister for Education and Skills when the education (admission to schools) Bill will be brought before the Houses of the Oireachtas for debate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48609/14]
View answerGovernment gave approval in March of this year for drafting the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2014 and the bill is currently at an advanced stage of drafting. The Bill is on the Government legislative programme for publication early in the Spring/Summer session.
The objective of the Admissions to School Bill is to provide an over-arching framework to ensure that how schools decide on who is enrolled and who is refused a place in schools is more structured, fair and transparent. The framework also proposes a mechanism for ensuring that every child receives a school place.A key objective in designing the framework is to create greater confidence for parents that the admission criteria laid down by schools are legitimate, reasonable and fair.
216. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide, in tabular form, the total number of applications for the 2014 summer works scheme; the number of these which were funded by county; the number of which were not funded by county; the amount of funding sought by each unfunded school; and the nature of the works funding was sought for. [48631/14]
View answerOver 1,600 applications were received under the 2014 Summer Works Scheme. In total, the spending of more than €70 million on the 2014 Summer Works Scheme has been approved to allow over 770 schools undertake improvement works. In that regard, I wish to advise the Deputy that provision has been made in the 2015 allocation for the carryover costs of the improvement works concerned.
Commensurate with the level of funding set aside for the Scheme, applications were assessed on a top down basis in accordance with the prioritisation criteria outlined in the Circular accompanying the Scheme. Unfortunately, due to the scale of demand for funding under the Scheme, it was not possible to grant aid all applications. However, in accordance with the Scheme's Circular, these applications will be retained and will be prioritised for consideration in the future, subject to availability of funding.
In respect of the further details in tabular form requested by the Deputy, I wish to advise that this will be forwarded separately to the Deputy in the coming days.
217. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the total funding allocated to the 2014 summer works scheme; if any of this funding was sourced from an underspend in the 2013 primary and secondary capital works budget; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48632/14]
View answerSpending of over €70m on the 2014 Summer Works Scheme has been approved of which €58.5m has been issued to date in 2014. The balance will be a commitment in 2015 in respect of Summer Works projects that are not as yet completed.
While capital expenditure on the schools sector in 2013 amounted to €361.4m which was €5.6m shy of the allocation for the sector in that year, the Department's overall capital outturn was over €7m ahead of the original allocation for 2013. Consequently, no funding was carried forward from 2013 to 2014.
218. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of qualified primary teachers currently unable to find work or under-employed in part-time work; the number of student teachers currently in colleges including private colleges that will be seeking work in coming years; the number of full-time positions filled in the past three years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48633/14]
View answerThe Teaching Council, the professional standards body for teachers, have been asked for advice on the matter of teacher supply and demand. The Council is currently working to provide that advice with the overall goal of ensuring that there is timely information to inform the system generally and for planning in my Department. The Teaching Council has established a Technical Working Group to pilot a draft model of teacher supply and a Consultative Forum for stakeholders which will offer advice and feedback on proposals developed by the Technical Working Group. I expect to receive an initial report from the Teaching Council shortly.
Information on the number of teachers out of work is not available in my Department. Teacher allocations are approved annually in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. There were a thousand more teachers employed in schools around the country in the last school year, than there was the year before. There will be a further increase of circa 1,300 teachers in the current school year. This is a very significant investment at a time of scarce resources.Teachers are appointed by the Management Bodies of schools. There are approximately 3,000 substitute teachers employed by School Authorities in any one day in the Primary Sector. A sub replacement service is operated by some Education Bodies. The policy of my Department is to ensure, as far as possible, that the Managerial Authorities of schools give priority to unemployed registered teachers who are fully qualified when filling vacant teaching posts. My Department has issued a number of Circulars addressing this issue in recent years. Under these Circulars School Principals must maintain a list of unemployed registered teachers who are available for substitute work at short notice. Circular 31/2011 details a cascade of measures for the recruitment of teachers, prioritising an appropriately qualified registered teachers.
The information sought by the Deputy on number of full time positions filled in the past three years is not readily available in my Department in the format required by the Deputy. School authorities appoint teachers to full time posts on an ongoing basis when posts fall vacant, for example, to replace teachers who resigned or retired and to fill newly sanctioned posts.
The current average number of graduates from the State funded colleges is approximately 1300 per annum. Hibernia College expects in the region of 550 graduates per annum.
219. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide additional funding in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Laois to enable them complete a building project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48647/14]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the school in question were granted approval in February 2014 for a mainstream classroom with en-suite facilities to replace a prefab unit. This additional accommodation will significantly enhance this 3 classroom school's facilities. My Department have since been made aware that the school, in question, are seeking additional funding to provide further works, that are significantly in excess of the scope of the accommodation approved. It is open to the school to submit details to my Department of the proposed works, in question. When this information has been received, my Department will then be in a position to assess the application.
220. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the employment of persons who have been working full time as special needs assistants, SNAs, in schools and where there is no longer a demand for a full time SNA or any SNA in a particular school; if there are arrangements in place where they can go on a panel to be provided with employment in adjoining schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48649/14]
View answerSNA allocations are determined by the NCSE on an annual basis. Where the allocation of SNA resources to a school is reduced this may necessitate a reduction in the allocation of the hours of the most junior SNA(s). Where the hours of an SNA are reduced, a compensation payment is made to that SNA where they have the requisite service in line with the terms of DES circular 58/2006. Where a reduction in the allocation of SNA(s) to a school results in the redundancy of SNA(s) the following will apply.
A set of proposals for a public service agreement were put forward by the Labour Relations Commission which now form the Public Service Stability Agreement 2013-2016 (the Haddington Road Agreement). One aspect of this Agreement relates to supplementary assignment arrangements for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) and as both Unions that represent SNAs namely, SIPTU and IMPACT, have signed up to the Haddington Road Agreement, my Department has implemented supplementary assignment arrangements for SNAs.
The first part of the LRC proposals for supplementary assignment arrangements for SNAs outlines that the supplementary assignment arrangements only apply to current SNAs who are notified that they are to be made redundant. Accordingly, the purpose of these arrangements is to facilitate eligible SNAs who are being made redundant by one employer in filling SNA vacancies that may become available in another school / ETB.
With effect from 1 May 2013 once an SNA with a minimum of one year's service (Service in a substitute capacity i.e. covering for maternity leave, sick leave, career breaks, job-sharing etc. does not count) is notified by his/her employer that s/he is to be made redundant then s/he shall be deemed to be a member of a supplementary assignment panel for SNAs.
With the exception of SNAs who have been re-employed on permanent contracts or have chosen to opt out of the panel in accordance with the terms of Paragraph 6 of the circular, all SNAs who have been made redundant since 1 May 2013 are members of the SNA Supplementary Assignment Panel.
The detailed supplementary assignment arrangements for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) for the 2014/2015 school year are set out in Departmental Circular 0044/2014 which issued on 12 May 2014 and which is available on the Department's website at the following address: http://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0044_2014.pdf
It should be noted that this does not prevent any person, including SNAs who were employed prior to 1 May 2013, from applying for SNA vacancies but employers are obliged to give precedence to applicants who are members of the SNA Supplementary Assignment Panel.
When an employer has a vacancy to fill, they must undertake the recruitment process in accordance with the provisions outlined in paragraphs 12-18 of Circular 44/2014.
Finally, my Department has set up a dedicated e-mail address to deal with all queries in relation to the SNA Supplementary Assignment Panel and any queries in respect of the operation of the Panel can be directed to this dedicated e-mail address: snasupplementpanel@education.gov.ie
