Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2016
499. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number and name of schools where demand is double or close to double the available intake capacity; if she will allocate additional teaching resources for the 2016-17 academic year to help target this underprovision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5220/16]
View answerTeacher allocations to all schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. The criteria for the allocation of posts are communicated to school managements annually and are available on the Department's website. The Deputy will be aware that I have made provision in Budget 2016 for some 2,260 additional teaching posts for our primary and post primary schools next year. These posts will provide for an improvement in the staffing schedules at primary and post primary levels, enhance the leadership and management roles of deputy principals at post-primary level by reducing their teaching time, an improvement to the scheme of release time for principal teachers at primary level and additional resource posts to meet special education needs. At primary level there will be a one point improvement to the primary staffing schedule to be implemented for the 2016/17 school year. This will see the primary staffing schedule operate on the basis of a general average of 1 classroom teacher for every 27 pupils. At primary level lower thresholds apply for DEIS Band 1 schools. At post-primary level the schedule will improve by 0.3 points, from 19:1 to 18.7:1 for the 2016/17 school year. When the allocation for guidance was brought within quota under Budget 2012 measures, DEIS schools were protected from the change by providing for a 18.25:1 allocation compared with the general 19:1 allocation. The position of DEIS schools will be further enhanced for the 2016/17 school year by a change to an allocation on the basis of 17.95:1. The staffing arrangements also include an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Appeals Board. Details of the appeals criteria are set out in the published staffing arrangements. The staffing and redeployment arrangements for all schools for the 2016/17 school year were published early in 2016. The final staffing position for 2016/17 for all schools will ultimately not be known until the Autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed and any appeals to the Staffing Appeals Boards will have been considered.
