Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2021
265. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Education the amount that was designated to the summer provision programme in 2019 as compared to 2020, with reference to the predicted sum for the upcoming summer period of 2021, in tabular form. [27297/21]
View answerThe Government has approved the provision of significantly expanded summer education programmes for pupils with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage, as a Covid-19 pandemic response measure, for summer 2021.
This is an incredibly important Government decision, which ensures that for first time all primary and post primary schools have the opportunity to provide summer programmes for students with complex needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage.
The total funding available to provide the programme is up to €40 million, a one hundred per cent increase on the allocation for summer provision in 2020.
The programmes for mainstream students in primary and post-primary schools are new programmes for 2021, building upon previous summer programmes for pupils with complex special educational needs and those in provided in DEIS schools last year.
Further details on the schemes and how schools can apply will be available this week at
gov.ie/summerprovision.
My Department's traditional July Provision Programme provided for an extended school year for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and children with a severe/profound general learning disability.
In 2019 over 3,400 children participated in the school based July Provision programme and over 7,100 participated in the home based scheme.
A significantly expanded Summer Programme was provided in 2020 for children with complex needs as a discrete response to Covid-19. The programme included a number of strands and options from which parents could choose, involving either in-school, or home-based supports by teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) to help to prevent regression among children with SEN.
The programmes aim was to support children to reintegrate / transition into their planned education setting for the 2020/21 school year with their peers.
Over 14,000 children participated in the 2020 special education summer programmes developed by the Department including 3,881 in the school based programme in 255 schools and 9,716 children in the home based programme.
In 2020 all 198 schools DEIS post-primary schools were offered the opportunity to run a new week long programme which was developed focusing on encouraging those students deemed most in need to reconnect with school, supporting their physical, social and emotional wellbeing and providing them with the skills they need to engage in a meaningful way with learning in the future. 72 DEIS post-primary schools ran the week long summer programme in 2020 with some 2,243 students attending with a total cost in the region of €575,000.
The Department expanded the existing DEIS literacy and numeracy camp/ Campai Samhraidh to allow all Primary Urban band 1, Primary Urban band 2 and Primary Rural DEIS schools to run a Literacy and Numeracy Summer camp in summer 2020. A total of 214 DEIS primary schools ran a week long literacy and numeracy camp/Campai Samhraidh in 2020 with just over 7,000 pupils participating.
The costs are set out in the table below.
|
Programme |
2019 |
2020 |
|
Special Schools and Class Programme |
€5.7m |
€6.5m |
|
Complex Needs Home Based Programme |
€9.80 |
€12.3m |
|
Total |
€15.5m |
€18.8m |
|
DEIS Post Primary |
n/a |
€0.6m |
|
DEIS Primary Literacy & Numeracy |
€0.3m |
€1m |
|
Total |
€0.3m |
€1.6m |
