Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 October 2016
195. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the full-year cost of increasing the number of resource teachers from 7,450 to 8,000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28585/16]
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 €1.5 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 12,000 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 National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to allocate to schools for the 2016/17 school year, which is an increase of over 600 posts on the previous 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 received to September 2016. It is expected that the remaining posts will be sufficient to meet this demand.
The full year cost of increasing the number of Resource Teaching Posts from 7452 to 8000 would be approximately €32.8 million per annum.
The Deputy will be aware that the NCSE has recommended the development of a new resource teaching allocation model for schools.
A pilot of this new model was conducted in 47 primary and post-primary schools over the course of the 2015/16 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.
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.
