Vol. 547 No. 1
1243 Mr. Fleming asked the Minister for Education and Science the situation regarding an application by Scoil Bhríde national school, Portlaoise, County Laois, for the appointment of persons (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1905/02]
The home-school-community liaison scheme was last expanded in September 1999. This expansion included any remaining schools designated as disadvantaged that did not have a home-school-community liaison service. As the school in question did not have designated disadvantaged status it was not included in the scheme.
The school referred to by the Deputy has the services of two shared learning support teacher posts, one of which is shared with one other school in the area. All available learning support teacher posts have been allocated as part of the process of extending the learning support service to every primary school in the country with a pupil teacher ratio of 10:1 or above. However, I assure the Deputy that the needs of the school in question will be taken fully into account in the event of additional learning support teacher posts becoming available for distribution.
The early start pre-school pilot project is in place in 40 selected schools in designated areas of disadvantage. It is aimed at children who are considered to be most at risk of not reaching their potential and are aged between three and four years.
The Deputy may be aware of The White Paper on Early Childhood Education "Ready to Learn", which sets out a comprehensive strategy for the development of early childhood education for all children aged from birth to six years. The question of developing and funding initiatives for particular pre-school sectors or the extension of the early start project to additional schools will be considered by the newly-established Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education in the context of the implementation of the White Paper.
The Deputy will already be aware that in January 2001 I launched a major new programme, "Giving Children An Even Break", to deal with educational disadvantage in primary schools. The new programme will be run over a three-year period and will cost some 33 million with the allocation of more than 200 teaching posts.
There are separate urban and rural dimensions to the new programme. Schools categorised as urban with the highest concentrations of at risk pupils will be supported, where necessary, over the three-year period through staff allocations to implement a pupil teacher ratio of 20:1 in the junior classes, infants through second class, and a pupil teacher ratio of 29:1 in senior classes, third through sixth classes.
The school in question has been included in the urban dimension and will be allocated supplementary grant aid over the three-year period, towards providing additional educational supports for the pupils concerned. The school was not considered eligible for additional teaching staff, based on the level of concentration of at risk pupils in the schools as reflected in the Educational Research Centre survey outcome.
