The staffing schedule for national schools for the 1996-97 school year will be issued to all schools this week. The schedule is unchanged from the 1995-96 schedule. However, I have indicated that no two teacher school which would have lost a teacher under the schedule will do so. It is currently estimated that the number of teaching posts available for reallocation as a result of the fall in enrolments in the current year will be 341.
First, as already announced I have committed myself to implement the recommendations of the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre report on new measures to break the cycle of education disadvantage. One very substantial recommendation which I will be implementing is for the allocation of additional teaching resources to the most disadvantaged schools in the primary system, both urban and rural. Since the selection of schools has not yet commenced, it is not possible to identify accurately at this stage the number of posts required to implement these initiatives.
Second, as I announced last week, I am extending the substitute supply panel scheme by an additional 20 teachers from September next. This scheme, which I initiated in 1993, provides cover for teachers on absences of short duration.
Decisions on the allocation of teachers, including the allocation of special teaching posts, to schools for the 1996-97 school year have yet to be taken.