Written Answers Nos. 79-90
79. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he is actively working and co-operating with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on research and development at Cavan institute or Monaghan institute on initiatives to attract jobs to counties Cavan and Monaghan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14434/17]
View answerBoth Cavan Institute and Monaghan Institute are operated by Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board(CMETB). CMETB works closely with both local authorities in Cavan and Monaghan as well as the local enterprise offices to ensure that the skills set is available in both counties to permit the growth and development of indigenous industry and meet the skills needs of those seeking to invest in the region.
In association with the Local Enterprise Office in Cavan, CMETB has supported the development of a Cavan employers HR and Skills Network Forum.
The Regional Skills Forum Manager facilitates ongoing collaboration between employers and education and training providers in the region, with the view to providing targeted skills development opportunities that are relevant to the needs of learners, society and the economy. This has the effect of increasing the supply of skills to the labour market, thereby addressing skills shortages, supporting job creation and overall economic growth and development in Cavan and Monaghan.
CMETB facilitated a skills audit in Cavan and Monaghan and are responding to the needs identified in that audit. CMETB Training Services are working closely with the Agrifood industry in Cavan and Monaghan to meet identified skills needs in food preparation and manufacturing. It is consulting with the Hospitality sector including the Restaurant Association of Ireland and a number of employers in the local hospitality sector with a view to establishing a Professional Cookery traineeship to support the local food industry.
There are currently 166 registered employers of apprentices in Cavan and Monaghan and 334 registered apprentices. CMETB Training Services are also involved in the development of a number of new apprenticeships and is leading out on the development of two new programmes in the areas of engineering and HGV driving.
CMETB is engaging with indigenous companies and employers in the region to encourage up-skilling and development which will equip companies to grow. This function is delivered through its Training Services with courses based at Monaghan Education Campus and Monaghan Institute and also in the new Cavan Further Education and Training Campus.
Facilities in the new Cavan FET campus include general classrooms, IT rooms as well as an electrical installation classroom, delivering courses on smart technology, multimedia, IT support, healthcare and electrical installation. The army garage building has been upgraded to deliver a welding and fabrication course.
Additional provision in the area of skills for work, adult literacy and basic skills services are also provided by Cavan Institute and Monaghan Institute supporting workforce development in line with national skills policy. CMETB through Cavan Institute and Monaghan Institute is also providing bespoke training to a range of companies in Cavan and Monaghan
Cavan Institute and Monaghan Institute are also providing an extensive range of post-leaving certificate courses to over 1,600 learners comprising school leavers and mature learner in a broad range of provision aimed at providing suitably qualified graduates for the local jobs market in a broad range of sectors. Both colleges work closely with employers through their work experience programmes.
The very broad range of activity and engagement by CMETB with learners, employers and enterprise demonstrates its commitment to ensuring the delivery of high quality training and skills to attract and retain investment and job opportunities for the region.
80. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Education and Skills when the successful schools will be announced for summer works in categories other than those announced in April 2016; the reason the process is taking so long; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16710/17]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the current Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is being applied on a multi-annual basis for the years 2016 and 2017. Nearly 50% of schools have applied for inclusion under the (SWS) which reflects a very high demand.
Details of successful school applicants in respect of Categories 1 and 2 were announced in April 2016 and are published on my Department’s website www.education.ie.
Assessment of valid projects in further categories is now being undertaken by my Department, subject to the overall availability of funding, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the scheme as outlined in Circular Letter (0055/2015), which may be accessed on my Department's website. I expect to be in a position to announce a further round of the SWS in due course.
82. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he has received advice on the legality of proposals to select members of ASTI for redundancies at the end of this school year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16540/17]
View answerI note that the ASTI’s Central Executive Council announced at the weekend that it would hold a ballot for industrial action over the potential redundancy of ASTI member teachers.
The protection from compulsory redundancy that public servants have arises from commitments given by the Government under the Lansdowne Road Agreement. This protection is not available to those who are outside the terms of that Agreement. By deciding to reject the Lansdowne Road Agreement, the ASTI has placed its members outside that Agreement and has decided that the Agreement’s benefits and protections will not apply to its members. My Department made this position clear to the ASTI prior to its recent ballot.
The process of identifying staff surpluses takes place in the first half of each year and takes effect from the start of the following school year. The process operates and deals with any surplus for the following school year.
The process for the 2017/18 school year is currently under way in my Department. 60 secondary schools were identified as possible surplus schools for the 2017/18 school year. These 60 schools received a letter notifying them of their surplus and were given an opportunity to respond to same. This represents the total number of schools where potential surpluses could arise.
However, at this stage of the process it is too early to say what the final position as regards the level of surplus will be, either generally or in particular schools. The level of surplus is influenced by many factors including retirements, career breaks, job-sharing etc. and additional allocations for the forthcoming year in respect of demographics. This continues to evolve as new information is received from relevant schools. Given that Budgets 2016 and 2017 did not negatively impact on teacher allocations, it would not be surprising that the level of redeployment would be lower than in recent years.
My Department expects to know the final position in relation to the number of surplus teachers shortly. This is no different to what has transacted in previous years.
83. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Education and Skills the criteria for DEIS status, in view of the fact that a school in an area (details supplied) has been refused DEIS status while surrounding schools in the same socioeconomic area have attained it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16539/17]
View answerDEIS Plan 2017 provides for a new identification model for assessment of a school's level of disadvantage using centrally held data. The key data sources are the DES Primary Online Database (POD) and Post-Primary Online (PPOD) Databases and the CSO Small Area of Population (SAP) data from Census 2011 as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation Index (HP Index). This data provides information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of each individual school and is applied uniformly across all schools in the country, including schools in the area mentioned by the Deputy. Variables used in the compilation of the HP Index include those related to demographic growth, dependency ratios, education levels, single parent rate, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. This data is combined with pupil data, anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools.
In its initial application, the new identification model has identified that there are schools in disadvantaged areas, not previously included in DEIS, whose level of disadvantage is at the same level as the current DEIS category for schools serving the highest concentrations of disadvantage. Accordingly, we are moving as a first step to include these schools in the DEIS Programme with effect from September 2017.
The implementation of a new objective central data-based model of identifying levels of disadvantage within school populations will be followed by a further programme of work to create a more dynamic model where levels of resource more accurately follow the levels of need identified by that model. Once this work has been completed, consideration will be given to extending DEIS supports to a further group of schools as resources permit.
The next phase of the identification process will be to update the model to take account of 2016 National Census data and 2016/17 online pupil data. These updated data will facilitate a further assessment of all schools and will be possible when the updated datasets are available later this year.
The DEIS Plan provides for a verification process and any school wishing to seek verification of the information used to assess the level of disadvantage of its pupil cohort may submit an application for same to social_inclusion@education.gov.ie
84. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the report of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Nils Muižnieks, relating to religious discrimination in school admissions and in the running of schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16704/17]
View answerThe report referred to by the Deputy recommends that the exemption provided for denominational schools in Section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act 2000 should be removed.
In this regard as the Deputy will be aware, I commenced a public consultation process from 24th January to 20th March 2017 on the role of denominational religion in the school admission process and possible approaches for making changes.
I have stated that I believe that it is unfair that preference is given by publicly funded religious schools to children of their own religion who might live some distance away, ahead of children of a different religion or of no religion who live close to the school.
I also believe that it is unfair that parents, who might otherwise not do so, feel pressure to baptise their children in order to gain admission to the local school and I intend to reform the school admissions system in relation to the role that religion can play in that process.
In the Consultation paper I set out four possible approaches for dealing with the issue, in primary schools in the first instance, including:
- A catchment area approach, prohibiting religious schools from giving preference to children of their own religion who live outside the catchment area ahead of non-religious children who live inside the catchment;
- A ‘nearest school rule’, allowing religious schools to give preference to a religious child only where it is that child’s nearest school of that particular religion;
- A quota system, which would allow a religious school give preference to children of its own religion in respect of only a certain proportion of places, meaning that the remaining places would be allocated based on other admissions criteria – proximity to the school, lottery etc.;
- An outright prohibition on religious schools using religion as a factor in admissions, meaning that all places would be allocated based on other factors. Within this approach, there is capacity to allow religious schools to require parents or students to indicate some support or respect for the ethos of the school.
As I specifically outlined in the consultation paper, I am mindful of the need to avoid possible pitfalls and unintended consequences with each of these approaches, including possible impacts on minority religions and on the wishes of Protestant, Jewish, Islamic and other communities to be able to run schools in accordance with their ethos and admit children from their communities to attend those schools.
Other possible consequences to be avoided include possible breaches of the constitution, technical and administrative difficulties impacting on the capacity to effectively run the system of over 4000 schools and the possibility of creating ‘postcode lotteries’, such as other countries have experienced, resulting in pronounced divergence in the quality of schools in more advantaged compared to less advantaged areas.
My Department has begun the process of examining the submissions and formulating next steps. I will then develop and implement measures to deal with this issue.
With regard to the teaching of religion in schools, Article 44 of the Constitution and Section 30 of the Education Act 1998 provides that parents have a right to have their children opt out of religion classes if they so wish.
The Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016 includes a specific requirement that school enrolment policies must include details of the school’s arrangements for any students who do not wish to attend religious instruction. This is an important measure which will help ensure transparency from the outset as to how a school will uphold the rights of parents in this regard.
85. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a school (details supplied) wishes to retain an extra school teacher it acquired in 2016; if the school can retain the extra teacher it acquired; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16498/17]
View answerThe 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. The staffing arrangements for the 2017/18 school year (Circular 0017/2017) were published recently.
The school referred to by the Deputy had an enrolment of 501 pupils on the 30th September 2016. As set out in the staffing schedule, the enrolment figure required to retain the 19th classroom teaching post is 502 pupils.
For 2017/18 an additional Special Education Post (S.E.T. Post) has been allocated to this school under the new Special Education allocation model. This revised allocation process will replace the General Allocation Model and English as Additional Language Support (GAM/EAL) scheme, whereby a general allocation of resources had previously been allocated to primary schools annually.
The staffing schedule includes an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Appeals Board. Details of the criteria for appeal are contained in the staffing schedule, Circular 0017/2017.
The Primary Staffing Appeals Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.
86. Deputy Gino Kenny asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reverse the decision to make cutbacks in the provision of all learning support in English and mathematics and in the provision of resource hours at a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16499/17]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that DES Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools and 0014/2017 for post primary schools were published on 7th March 2017.
These Circulars set out the details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools.
The revised allocation process replaces the generalised allocation process at primary and post primary school level for learning support and high incidence special educational needs, and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocation process which provided additional resource teaching supports to schools, to support pupils assessed as having Low Incidence disabilities.
The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.
Allocations based on the school profiles were issued to all schools on 7th March. Details of the special education teaching allocations have also been published on the NCSE website.
The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs. Substantial research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all of the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children.
No school, including the school to which the Deputy has referred, will lose supports as a result of the implementation of the new model. In addition, no school will receive an allocation, for the support of pupils with complex needs, less than the allocation they received to support such pupils during the 2016/17 school year.
An additional 900 teaching posts have been provided to support the introduction of this new allocation model. The provision of an additional 900 teaching posts is a very significant investment in the provision of additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs in our schools. This is additional to an increase of 41% in the number of resource teachers allocated to schools annually by the NCSE since 2011.
The additional funding will provide for additional supports to over 1200 schools who are identified as needing additional supports as a result of the new model. Supports for children with special educational needs is a key priority for this Government. The new funding will ensure that all schools receive a sufficient allocation of special education needs resources to provide additional teaching support to all pupils, including pupils who have yet to enrol in their school, who require such support.
In relation to the particular school referred to by the Deputy in his question, this school had a General Allocation Model allocation of 60 hours for the 2016/17 school year, which combined with 55.25 resource teaching hours allocated to the school by the National Council for Special Education, gave a total allocation to the school of 115.25 additional teaching hours for the 2016/17 school year.
The profiled allocation for the school had indicated an allocation requirement of 102.5 hours for this school for 2017/18, which would have resulted in a nominal reduction of 12.75 hours.
However, as no school will receive and allocation less than their 2016/17 allocation, the school has maintained its existing level of allocation.
The special education teaching allocation for this school for 2017/18 is 115.25 hours.
There has therefore been no reduction to the special education teaching allocation for this school.
It should also not be assumed that the potential reduction indicated for this school will be applied in the future, when the next profiling exercise occurs, as a new profiled allocation will be calculated at that time, which will take into account any changes to the school population or profile.
DES Circulars 0013 and 0014 2017 advised schools that any future adjustments to the allocations for schools will take place on a graduated basis, which will take account of changes to school enrolments, and the pupil population, including the number of pupils in the complex needs category, since the initial allocations were developed.
Guidelines for schools on the organisation, deployment and use of their special education teachers to address the need of pupils with special educational needs are also being prepared and will be published shortly.
The Guidelines will support schools to reflect on how they can review and manage their timetabling practices to ensure the timetable is sufficiently flexible to meet the needs of all pupils in their school who have special needs. The Guidelines encourage schools to ensure they deploy their resources appropriately to meet the needs of all of the children in their school who require additional teaching support, including pupils with emerging needs, or new entrants.
The NCSE has also announced the commencement of an independent appeals process through which schools may appeal the allocation made to their school if they believe the data upon which the allocation is based is incorrect or has been incorrectly used.
87. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Education and Skills when decisions will be made on summer works scheme 2017 applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16713/17]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the current Summer Works Scheme (SWS) is being applied on a multi-annual basis for the years 2016 and 2017
Details of successful school applicants in respect of Categories 1 and 2 were announced last April and are published on my Department’s website www.education.ie. Assessment of valid projects in further categories is now being undertaken by my Department, subject to the overall availability of funding, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the scheme as outlined in Circular Letter (0055/2015), which may be accessed on my Department's website. I expect to be in a position to announce a further round of the SWS in due course.
88. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills if revised pay scales and allowances for persons recruited to certain direct entry grades are applicable to the position of Youthreach resource person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16697/17]
View answerI can confirm for the Deputy that revised payscales and allowances for persons recruited to certain direct entry grades resulting from the implementation of Government Decisions, FEMPI legislation and various National Pay Agreements are applicable to the position of Youthreach Resource Persons.
89. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to ensure adequate places in schools in County Cork for those children on the autism spectrum. [16706/17]
View answerThis Government is committed to ensuring that all children with Special Educational Needs, including those with autism, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network.
Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes which may draw from a range of appropriate educational interventions, delivered by fully qualified professional teachers, with the support of Special Needs Assistants and the appropriate school curriculum.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants to schools to support students with Special Educational Needs, including Autism. It is also the role of the NCSE to make appropriate arrangements to establish special classes in schools in communities where the need for such classes has been identified.
Special classes are part of a continuum of educational provision that enables students with more complex special educational needs to be educated, in smaller class groups, within their local mainstream schools and are for students who have a recommendation for a special class placement in their professional reports.
Students enrolled in special classes should be included in mainstream classes to the greatest extent possible, in line with their abilities.
There are 13 Special Schools in Cork city and county. Special Schools funded by my Department are intended to cater for children and young persons with special educational needs from 4 years until the end of the school year in which they reach their 18th year.
Special Schools are staffed in accordance with arrangements set out in my Department's Circular 0042/2011, which provides for enhanced pupil teacher ratios for pupils attending Special Schools ranging from 6-1, to 12-1, on the basis of disability categorisation of pupils attending the school.
Many special schools now enrol students from disability categories other than from those provided for by their school designations.
There are currently 1,153 special classes nationally, which is an increase of over 100% on the number available in 2011. Of these, 127 are ASD early intervention classes, 525 are primary ASD classes and 237 are post-primary ASD classes. The remainder are non-ASD special classes.
With regard to Cork City and County, there are 145 ASD special classes. Of these, 24 are ASD early intervention classes, 80 are primary ASD classes and 41 are post-primary ASD classes.
The NCSE, in consultation with the relevant education partners, must take into account the present and future potential need, location and sustainability in looking to establish special classes in certain areas. In this regard the NCSE has advised that they are continuing to engage with schools in opening special classes where there is an identified need for special class provision and in order to ensure there are sufficient placements available to meet demand.
Parents/guardians may contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs and to seek assistance in identifying placement options, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.
90. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the allocation of national school places for the Swords catchment area. [16510/17]
View answerMy Department is aware of the enrolment issues in the area referred to by the Deputy and is in ongoing direct contact with a number of the primary school in respect of their junior infant capacity.
As the Deputy may be aware, there are 13 primary schools in the area referred to of which 11 schools enrol junior infants: two of the schools are Senior Primary Schools catering for 3rd to 6th class only.
I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has been advised by at least two of the primary schools that they have junior infant places currently available. A number of schools have also expressed a willingness to offer further junior infant places for September 2017, if necessary. My Department expect that the position will be further clarified when the schools concerned finalise their enrolments process in the coming weeks.
While I understand that the enrolment situation may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice, my Department’s main responsibility is to ensure that the existing schools in the area can, between them, cater for the demand for Junior Infant places in September 2017.
