Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2015
1351. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Education and Skills with reference to the piloting of a new system of allocating special educational resources, the assessment and review process that will be undertaken in the evaluation of the new system; the role schools and teachers will play in the evaluation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32225/15]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that I recently announced that a pilot of a new model for allocating additional teaching resources to schools to support children with special educational needs, as recommended by the National Council for Special Education, will take place in 47 schools during the 2015/16 school year.
Following a selection process designed to ensure that as full a range of schools as possible would be represented, to take account of disadvantaged classification, gender mix, school size and sector, 47 Schools (28 primary schools and 19 post primary schools) have agreed to participate in the pilot project on a voluntary basis.
This pilot has been developed in order to test the model in a number of schools and to allow for the practical effect of the application of the new model in pilot schools to be gauged, while also taking into account the learning experiences of schools.
The pilot will be subject to a review by my Department's Inspectorate, the National Council for Special Education, and the National Educational Psychological Services. The review will be conducted in collaboration with participating schools. The core elements of the review will include feedback from agencies and partners, external monitoring and review, and self-reflection by schools.
The review will seek to determine the effectiveness of the pilot in meeting the needs of pupils with special educational needs, including how schools manage to deploy resources in accordance with identified needs of students, as envisaged by the proposed new allocation model.
