Written Answers Nos. 149-164
149. Deputy Eugene Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a person on a medical card who was previously able to avail of free school travel for two years has now been denied a travel pass as the person is not attending the nearest secondary school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23185/16]
View answerUnder the terms of my Department's Post Primary School Transport Scheme children are eligible for transport where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest education centre as determined by my Department/Bus Éireann, having regard to ethos and language.
Children who are not eligible for school transport may avail of school transport on a concessionary basis only subject to a number of terms and conditions including that there are spare seats available on an existing school bus service and payment of the annual charge.
The child referred to by the Deputy has availed of transport on a concessionary basis in recent years and has submitted payment each year in the normal manner.
Bus Éireann has advised that no application for school transport has been received for 2016/17 school year for a sibling of this child.
150. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of implementing one-point reductions in average class size at primary level; and his estimates for reducing the average class size to 23 pupils for the 2017-18 school year. [23186/16]
View answerThe Programme for Government has a commitment to reduce class sizes at primary level.
Budget 2016 provides for a one point adjustment to the staffing allocation to primary schools, which will 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. Lower thresholds apply for DEIS Band 1 schools, ranging from 20:1 to 24:1 depending on the type of school.
Each 1 point adjustment to the staffing schedule is estimated to cost between 250-300 additional posts, at a cost of circa. €15m-€18m.
151. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of implementing one-point reductions in the average class size at post-primary level. [23187/16]
View answerTeacher allocations to all second level 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 my Department's website.
Each one point adjustment to the pupil teacher ratio (ptr) at post-primary level is estimated to cost in the order of 1000 teaching posts (i.e. €63m).
152. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of fully restoring the staffing schedule for retaining and gaining a teacher that applied for schools before 2012 for three, four and five-teacher schools. [23188/16]
View answerThe Programme for Government has a commitment to reduce class sizes at primary level and to commencing a review within three months of teacher appointment thresholds in small schools with four teachers or less.
The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to primary schools is published annually on the website of the Department of Education and Skills. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September.
Budget 2012 increased the appointment and retention ratios for small schools (i.e., schools with up to four classroom teachers). Improvements to the staffing of these schools were announced for the 2015/16 school year. These improvements are improved retention thresholds for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th classroom teacher and also the improved appointment and retention thresholds for one-teacher schools situated 8km or more from the nearest school of the same type of patronage and/or language of instruction.
This package of measures will provide rural communities with security about the future of their small schools, recognising the essential social function which small schools can play, especially in isolated communities.
In addition, Budget 2016 announced a 1 point improvement to the primary staffing schedule. The improved staffing schedule which is available on the Department website will be implemented for the 2016/17 school year.
The cost of restoring the 2011/12 staffing schedule for small schools would be approximately €7.5m (125 posts).
In the next Budget I will consider the best approach to further meeting commitments in the Programme for Government.
153. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of restoring pre-2010 capitation levels to primary schools; and the estimated cost of a 10% increase in the capitation grant to primary schools. [23189/16]
View answerIn the period 2011 to 2015 the capitation and related grants for primary schools were reduced by just over 11% in aggregate. The estimated cost of restoring capitation and related grants to primary schools to pre-2011 levels would be circa €21m.
Each 1% increase in capitation and related grants for primary schools would cost approx. €1.9m. and therefore a 10% increase would cost approx. €19m.
In relation to capitation levels for future years, the recently published Programme for a Partnership Government commits to investing an extra €500m in education by 2021 through various measures including annual increases in primary and secondary capitation rates.
It also provides for additional capitation funding linked to the availability of afterschool care options, where demand exists and the setting out of capitation rates to schools on a rolling 3-year basis.
The commitments in the Programme, including to increase capitation funding, will be considered in the context of the budgetary process.
154. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing schools one administration day per week for teaching principals to cover the establishment of a permanent pool of teachers to replace teaching principals on their administration day. [23190/16]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that Budget 2016 made provision 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.
Circular 12/2016, which is available on the Department website, outlines the number of days that teaching principals may take as release time in a school year in order to assist them fulfilling their principal duties. Under these arrangements my Department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching principal. Under the current arrangements the number of days that principal teachers may take as release time in each school year ranges between 15 and 25 days depending on the size of the school.
Improving these arrangements so as to enable teaching principals to have one release day per week would cost in the order of €12.5 million per annum.
155. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of employing an additional 100 NEPS psychologists. [23191/16]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychology service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA), full details of which are on the Department's website. Under this scheme schools can have an assessment carried out by a member of the panel of private psychologists approved by NEPS, and NEPS will pay the psychologist the fees for this assessment directly.
My Department, over the course of recent economic difficulties, has not only maintained psychologists staffing levels within NEPS, but has increased them by some 10% since late 2008, to 165 whole time equivalent psychologists currently employed.
The Programme for a Partnership Government commits that we will invest additional resources in the National Educational Psychological Service to ensure earlier intervention and access for young children and teenagers and to offer immediate support to schools in cases of critical incidents. The Programme commits to bring the total number of NEPS psychologists to 238 from the current sanctioned limit of 173.
I can inform the Deputy that the NEPS budget for 2016 stand at €18.25m which provides for the pay and non-pay costs of the national structure of regional and local offices. To increase this number by a further 100 psychologists would demand a direct investment of some €7.3m. per annum.
156. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of the resource teaching and learning support hours allocated to all schools in each electoral division or the next smallest administrative area unit available in Dublin. [23193/16]
View answerSpending on provision for children with Special Educational Needs has been prioritised in recent years, despite the enormous pressures on all public spending.
Funding for special education provision in 2016 will amount to some €1.4 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 17% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training. It has increased by 10% in the past two years.
This funding provides for a range of supports and services, including additional learning and resource teaching support.
There are currently over 11,800 Learning Support and Resource Teacher posts in mainstream primary and post primary schools, providing additional teaching support to pupils with special educational needs.
A total of 7452 resource teaching posts is available to the NCSE to allocate to schools for the coming 2016/17 school year, which is an increase of over 600 posts on the current years allocation, and an increase of 41% over the numbers allocated since 2011, which was 5265 posts.
The NCSE invited all schools to make applications for resource teaching support, for the 2016/17 school year, by 29th February. The NCSE advised all schools, on 28th April, 2016, of their allocations for resource teaching support for September 2016.
7015 posts were allocated to schools at that time Details of these allocations are available at www.ncse.ie. The remainder of the 7452 available are available for allocation by the NCSE to meet demand from further valid applications which may be received to September 2016. It is expected that the remaining posts will be sufficient to meet this demand.
The NCSE has published details of Resource Teaching Hours for all schools including Dublin on its website, which are available to view on a per county basis at: http://ncse.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/NCSE-Allocation-of-RT-to-Post-Primary-Schools-September-2016.pdf.
With regard to Learning Support Hours, since September 2012 at primary level the combined resources available for learning support (General Allocation Model) and language support (EAL) have been merged into a single simplified allocation process. The GAM/EAL arrangements for the 2016/17 school year are set out in Circular 0007/2016 and are based on a school's mainstream classroom posts for the 2015/16 school year. Appendix C of Circular 0007/2016 lists the GAM/EAL allocation for all schools and is available on the Department website at: http://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0007_2016_appendix_C.pdf.
Each recognised post primary school in the free education scheme or block grant scheme with an enrolment of less than 600 recognised pupils (excluding pupils on PLC Programmes) receives an allocation of 0.9 of a post. Recognised schools with an enrolment of 600 such pupils or more receive an allocation of 1.4 whole time equivalent posts. Details can be obtained from Circular 0003/2016 which can be downloaded at: http://www.education.ie/en/Circulars-and-Forms/Active-Circulars/cl0003_2016.pdf.
178 learning support teaching posts were allocated in post primary schools in Dublin for high incidence special educational needs.
157. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made on the implementation of the Ward report on contracts of indefinite duration and general recommendations for reducing workforce casualisation in the teaching profession. [23194/16]
View answerThe Haddington Road agreement provided for the establishment of an Expert Group on Fixed-Term and Part-Time Employment in Primary and Second Level Education in Ireland. This group was chaired by Mr. Peter Ward SC, who consulted extensively with all the stakeholders and interested parties. The report was published in September 2014 and can be found on my Department's website.
The report recommended a suite of measures which will lead to more job security for fixed-term and part-time teachers. It recommended seven changes for implementation from the commencement of the 2015/16 school which my Department implemented. Circulars 23/2015 and 24/2015 detailing the arrangements and procedures for the implementation of the recommendations of the report were published on March 27 2015 and are available on my Department's website.
One of the key features of the new procedures is that the qualification period for the granting of an initial Contract of Indefinite Duration (CID) is reduced from a period of continuous employment in excess of three years with the same employer to a period of continuous employment in excess of two years.
In their deliberations the expert group considered the issue of the exclusion from qualification for a CID of a teacher who is covering for another teacher absent on an approved scheme of leave of absence. The report recommended that a teacher covering for another teacher on career break or secondment should not be disqualified from entitlement to a CID on that ground. However the group having considered the issue of teachers covering for teachers who are job-sharing concluded that these teachers should not be included in this arrangement.
My Department recently reached an agreement with INTO and TUI which includes the immediate commencement of discussions on implementation of the medium and longer term recommendations made in the Ward Report. As part of this process, appropriate measures to improve the ability to increase the working hours of part-time teachers will be considered, having regard to the curricular needs of schools and the effects of the measures being implemented in the first phase of the Ward Report recommendations.
ASTI has issued a directive to their members to withdraw from the Croke Park hours. ASTI's decision to withdraw from these hours means that the union has repudiated the Lansdowne Road Agreement. In opting to withdraw from the Lansdowne Road Agreement, ASTI members are also opting to forego a series of benefits and protections, as communicated by my Department previously. These include avoiding an increment freeze, continuation of the alleviation of the FEMPI Act 2013 pay cut for higher earners, the Supervision and Substitution payment of €796 due to be paid on 1 September and protection against compulsory redundancy. A further significant consequence of withdrawing from the Lansdowne Road Agreement will be the withdrawal of the benefits introduced for new teachers under the Ward Report, which enable them to gain permanent employment and full hours more quickly than before.
Under Circular 0045/2016 issued by Department, Circular 0024/2015 (which introduced improved CID arrangements for teachers) is withdrawn with immediate effect in respect of teachers not covered by the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
158. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated costs of increasing the resource teaching hours allocations from 85% of special education review committee recommended allocation levels to 92.5% and to 100% of recommended hours. [23195/16]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that spending on provision for children with Special Educational Needs has been prioritised in recent years, despite the enormous pressures on all public spending.
Funding for special education provision in 2016 will amount to some €1.4 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 17% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training. It has increased by 10% in the past two years.
This funding provides for a range of supports and services, including additional learning and resource teaching support.
There are currently over 11,800 Learning Support and Resource Teacher posts in mainstream primary and post primary schools, providing additional teaching support to pupils with special educational needs.
A total of 7452 resource teaching posts is available to the NCSE to allocate to schools for the coming 2016/17 school year, which is an increase of over 600 posts on the current years allocation, and an increase of 41% over the numbers allocated since 2011, which was 5265 posts.
The NCSE invited all schools to make applications for resource teaching support, for the 2016/17 school year, by 29th February. The NCSE advised all schools, on 28th April, 2016, of their allocations for resource teaching support for September 2016.
7015 posts were allocated to schools at that time Details of these allocations are available at www.ncse.ie. The remainder of the 7452 available are available for allocation by the NCSE to meet demand from further valid applications which may be received to September 2016. It is expected that the remaining posts will be sufficient to meet this demand.
The Deputy will be aware that a pilot of the proposed new allocation model has been taking place across a number of schools in advance of implementation in the school system generally.
The pilot has been developed in order to test the model and to allow for the practical effect of the application of the new model in the 47 pilot schools to be evaluated.
A review of the pilot has now commenced. This review will allow us to take into account the learning experiences of schools, principals, pupils and the views of parents over the course of the pilot.
On conclusion of the review a decision will be taken on the timeframe for the full implementation of the proposed new allocation model.
The cost of adding an additional 7.5% to the existing allocation bringing the allocation level to 92.5% of the recommended allocation levels would be €33.5m for some 559 posts.
The cost of a 15% increase bringing the allocation level to 100% of recommended levels would be €67m for 1118 posts.
159. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills the average waiting time for students to be publicly assessed for special needs by the National Educational Psychological Service; the number of students with special needs who have received a private assessment of special needs; and if he will provide a breakdown by electoral division or local authority area. [23196/16]
View answerMy Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychology service to all primary and post primary schools through an assigned NEPS psychologist and in some cases through the Scheme for Commissioning Psychological Assessments (SCPA).
NEPS does not maintain waiting lists but, in common with many other psychological services and best international practice, NEPS has adopted a consultative model of service. The focus is on empowering teachers to intervene effectively with pupils whose needs range from mild to severe and transient to enduring. Psychologists use a problem solving and solution oriented consultative approach to maximise positive outcomes for these pupils. NEPS encourages schools to use a continuum based assessment and intervention process whereby each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention for pupils with learning, emotional or behavioural difficulties. Teachers may consult their NEPS psychologist should they need to at this stage in the process. Only in the event of a failure to make reasonable progress, in spite of the school's best efforts in consultation with NEPS, will the psychologist become involved with an individual child for intensive intervention or assessment.
This system allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and also to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually. It also ensures that children are not referred unnecessarily for psychological intervention.
My Department's NEPS service records details of the number of individual pupils/students with whom its own staff are directly involved and for whom assessments are provided under the aforementioned SCPA however my Department does not record centrally detail of private assessment undertaken by outside agents.
160. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on the performance of the pilot allocation system for resource teaching and learning supports; his views on whether the pilot is a success and, if so, on what indicators; his plans to extend the new allocation scheme in 2017-18 or at a later date; and the cost of the pilot scheme. [23197/16]
View answerMy Department has implemented a pilot of the proposed new Resource Teacher allocation model over the 2015/2016 school year. A review of this pilot has been completed and a report of the review is currently being finalised. I understand that the review will indicate that the new model has been positively received by schools and parents.
Under the pilot some 23 additional teaching posts were allocated to school participating in the pilot. The full year cost of this provision was €1.4m. It should however be noted that participating schools did not access resources through the existing NCSE model. It is not possible to determine whether any of the schools would have additional allocations under that model. Accordingly the figure of €1.4m should not be regarded as an additional cost to the Department but as an alternative cost.
Additional costs relating to hiring meeting facilities to accommodate training and information days for participating schools as well as travel and subsistence costs for teachers and principals attending the numerous training and information events amount to approximately €31,000.
Throughout the pilot my Department gathered information from the participating schools. This information was gathered using surveys, information and training days, self-reflective questionnaires and a formal review undertaken by my Department's Inspectorate.
Through these processes, schools indicated that they welcomed the increased flexibility and autonomy provided by the model to allocate resources based on need. Most schools believe the model allows more scope for team teaching, targeted interventions, mix of in-class and group work, with less focus on withdrawal and one to one teaching. All schools welcome the move away from the unnecessary labelling of children in order to secure resources. Schools also welcomed that they no longer need to wait for diagnosis and that this facilitates intervention at an earlier stage based on the schools identification of need.
In addition schools indicated a belief that they were broadly well supported in meeting the needs of children with Special Educational Needs.
When the full review has been finalised, I will consider its findings and will then consider the next steps for the new model including the timeframe for its introduction.
161. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if all DEIS schools are prioritised in their preferential access to NEPS psychologists; and if there is scope to provide priority to non-DEIS schools with a high percentage of students from lower-income backgrounds. [23198/16]
View answerI can confirm for the Deputy that DEIS schools are afforded priority by the National Educational Psychological Service in the allocation of NEPS psychologist time provided. The system used to allocate a NEPS psychologist to primary or post-primary schools is based on a weighting process which takes into account school size, DEIS status, gender mix and the presence of special units or classes, each of which is reflected as an additional factor in the service time allocated. A school's DEIS status forms a significant consideration in this process.
I can inform the Deputy that a review of the DEIS programme is currently underway in my Department and it is my intention that a New Action Plan for Educational Inclusion will be published by the end of this year.
162. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a list of major curriculum changes at post-primary level that are to be introduced in the 2017-18 or 2018-19 school years. [23202/16]
View answerAt Junior Cycle, Phase 3 will take place in September 2018, with the introduction of new specifications in the following subjects: Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Art, Craft and Design, and the curriculum area of Wellbeing.
Phase 4 will take place in September 2019 with the introduction of: Mathematics, Home Economics, History, Music and Geography.
At Senior Cycle, several areas are under review, but as of yet no timeframe has been given for their introduction.
163. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he is considering funding and supports for urban (band 1) DEIS schools as suggested in the ESRI review of the programme; and if his Department is also giving consideration to the ESRI suggestion in the same report to encourage schools to move away from rigid forms of ability grouping. [23203/16]
View answer164. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department's review of the DEIS programme is considering the suggestion in the ESRI review of the programme that there is case for a degree of tapering of funding for schools rather than a sharp withdrawal below the specified cut-off, as currently occurs under the DEIS programme. [23204/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 163 and 164 together.
The review of DEIS which is currently underway is looking at all aspects of the Programme including the range and impact of different elements of the School Support Programme, and the scope for increased integration of services provided by other Departments and agencies, in order to improve the effectiveness of supports to schools in this area.
I am also exploring the scope for innovative measures which have been shown to work well in improving results for disadvantaged children and students. Some examples of such measures are:
- School leadership
- School networks and clusters
- Teaching methodologies
- Integration of schools and other State supports within communities
- Greater use of Home School Community Liaison services
As the deputy will be aware I have recently announced that it is my intention to publish a new Action Plan for educational Inclusion before the end of this year.
