Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2024
232. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education to report on unclaimed EAL and part-time SET teaching hours for the school years 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-23; the number of unclaimed EAL, part-time SET teaching hours, broken down by county, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3467/24]
View answer236. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education the revenue saved due to unclaimed EAL and part time set teaching hours for the 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023 school years, broken down by county, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3471/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 232 and 236 together.
The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for individual school authorities, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24 of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012). In that regard there are more than 3,700 individual employers (boards of management of primary schools and post primary schools, as well as ETBs).
The Department does not collect data on the recruitment by individual employers, therefore we do not have figures on unclaimed EAL or SET teaching hours.
The 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 and also encompasses the Language Support (EAL) allocation that schools were allocated in previous years.
It is a matter for schools to deploy these resources effectively to meet the needs identified in the Student Support Plans, which should be based on the continuum of support framework. Once the Department allocates hours to a school it is the responsibility of the school and the board management to utilise the allocation.
Schools have been advised to have plans in place to ensure that they have access to substitutes to cover teacher absences.
Statistics on teacher allocations can be found on gov.ie - Education statistics (www.gov.ie) .
