Jonathan O'Brien
Question:5. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the pilot scheme for allocating special needs resources; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44043/15]
View answerWednesday, 9 December 2015
Questions (5)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
Will the Minister for Education and Skills give an update on the status of the pilot project?
The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, published advice in 2013 which identified that the current model for allocating resource teachers to schools is potentially inequitable and recommended the development of a new allocation model. A new model based on the profiled needs of each school rather than on the diagnosed disability of individual children has been developed. This new model will reduce the inequities in the current system and also ensure we are not unnecessarily labelling children from a young age. Work on this model is almost complete.
I have established a pilot of the new model which is under way in 47 schools and will run for the duration of the current school year. The pilot will test the practical impacts of the new model prior to full implementation. Significant guidance has been prepared and provided to schools involved. During the pilot all participating schools will complete an assessment questionnaire to gather information on their experiences. All participating schools attended a pilot information day on 15 September and a further information day took place on Friday last.
Will the Minister confirm that there was no limit to the resources for the model in the NCSE pilot project? I have been in contact with several principals who are concerned about the new model. The model apparently can be reviewed only every two years. There is a concern that some schools bringing in junior infants, who have special educational needs may not get the additional resources because of the two-year period.
There was no reduction in the resource hours given to the schools. There were extra supporting materials for the schools and the testing of the pupil planning process and the outcome of reporting. There were not unlimited resources. They have received their resource allocation for 2015-2016 and schools that might gain under the new model presumably would have got extra resources.
This is a pilot and the purpose is to learn from it. If the message the Deputy raises comes back from schools about the two-year review, it will be heeded. We want to learn as much as we can about how the new model works this year. That is why the sample schools are a mix of different social backgrounds, etc. We want to see if practical issues come up in the pilots and apply the lessons from those.
Until we get the results of the pilot we will not know the potential pitfalls of the new model. Everyone agrees the old model is broken, is not fit for purpose and a new one is needed. I understood that when the NCSE was tasked with the job of coming up with a new model, there was no limitation on resources. Whatever model it thought best for allocating resources would be put forward. That may include additional resources being put in place by the Department. Will the Minister confirm that?
There would have to be some limit on resources. We could not give an unlimited number of resource hours to a school, whether in a pilot or a new model. My understanding is that a school would not have reduced resources but there would not be unlimited resources. If I can clarify that further at a later stage for the Deputy, I will do so. There will be enough resources to ensure the new model can operate in an effective way in the schools concerned.