Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 November 2020
527. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Education the timeline for hiring the additional 2,100 teachers and special needs assistants as announced in October 2020; and the number of teachers and special needs assistants who will be recruited by county in tabular form. [36831/20]
View answerBudget 2021 continues the programme of major reinvestment in primary and post-primary education system and demonstrates clearly the Government’s commitment to, and support for, schools and students. Building on the initiatives set out in the Programme for Government, the budget for the Department of Education will be €8.9 billion in 2021, an increase of €410 million or some 5 five per cent on 2020.
Overall, 1,065 new teaching posts will be created for the 2021/22 school year. 403 of these posts will be working with children with special educational needs both in mainstream schools and in special schools.
Another 394 posts will be created at primary level to reduce further the primary staffing schedule by one point, bringing this to a historically low level of 25:1, and to reduce the retention schedule by three points. This measure will help to ensure that less pupils are required to recruit or retain a teacher.
Some 268 additional mainstream teachers in schools will be recruited to meet demographic-related demand due to the expected overall increases in the number of pupils enrolled in schools at both primary and post primary levels.
Schools will be able to ascertain their teacher allocation for the 2021/22 school year when the staffing schedule is published early next year.
Budget 2021 also provided for almost 1000 additional Special Needs Assistants bringing the total numbers to 18,000 by December 2021. This represents an increase of 70% in the number of SNAs provided since 2011 at which point 10,575 SNAs were available. This allocation of SNAs is to meet the care needs of pupils in 2021 and will enable the establishment of new special classes, creation of new places in special schools, support children in mainstream classes and the transition to the new allocation model for the 2021/22 school year. Further details will be communicated to schools later in this school year.
