Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2023
291. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education how many persons worked as home tutors per annum for 2020, 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023; how many of these are full-time on 39 hours per week or part-time on reduced hours, in tabular form; if these employees are paid on a weekly or monthly basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32298/23]
View answerThe Home Tuition Grant Scheme is available to provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school.
The aim of the Department is to meet the needs of families and to ensure every child is allocated a suitable school placement. The preferred approach is that children are educated in school settings where children may have access to fully qualified teachers, individualised education programmes, special needs assistants, school curriculum with the option, where possible and appropriate, of full or partial integration and interaction with student peers.
Accordingly, home tuition is provided as an interim measure only for children for whom a placement in a recognised school is not currently available and should not be regarded as an optional alternative to a school placement.
The Special Education Needs Home Tuition Scheme provides funding towards a compensatory educational service for children with special educational needs for whom such a placement is not available. The scheme also provides for early educational intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who meet the scheme’s criteria, aged from 2.5 - 5 years before they start in school.
The applicable criteria under which children qualify for Home Tuition support are set out in Circular 0024/2023.
Home tutors are engaged by the parents/guardian of the child who is to receive tuition and the tutor has no contractual relationship with the Department of Education. As tuition takes place outside the usual school structure it is important that home tutors are qualified to provide an educational programme relevant to the sector the child is in.
Accordingly, it is a condition of the scheme that parents/legal guardians recruit a tutor who is qualified in the sector in which tuition is being provided, and is registered with the Teaching Council for the duration of the approved tuition. Where all efforts have failed to secure the services of a teacher qualified to teach in the sector concerned, the Department may consider the engagement of a person who is registered with the Teaching Council and has a primary degree (minimum Level 7 on the National Framework of Qualifications) in a relevant area, e.g. Psychology.
Tutors are paid through the Department’s fortnightly payroll system, but the frequency in which they are paid is dependent on when parents/legal guardians submit claim forms for tuition provided. As tutors can be recruited by parents to provide tuition to children from the age of 2 ½ years of age and upwards, the allocation of hours can vary per child between 2 hours and 20 hours per week. As there is no contractual relationship between the Department and the tutors, it is not possible to determine the status of tutors as full time or part time.
To date in 2023 over 750 Tutors have been paid for Home Tuition to children who are in receipt of home tuition. For the years 2020 to 2022, the number of tutors paid are as follows:
|
Year |
No. of Tutors Paid |
|
2020 |
1149 |
|
2021 |
1020 |
|
2022 |
1003 |
It should be noted that the above table does not include tutors who were paid as part of a group arrangement.
