Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 7 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 2

Written Answers. - Special Educational Needs.

John V. Farrelly

Ceist:

650 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason his Department is reducing the remedial class numbers by 50% in a school (details supplied) in County Meath; if he intends making an allocation of funds for the upgrading of this school from the 2002 budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8186/02]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

My Department has not made any proposal to reduce remedial class numbers in the school in question as suggested by the Deputy. In 2000, as part of my Department's reading initiative, learning support guidelines were provided to all schools, aimed at ensuring that all children achieve appropriate levels of literacy and numeracy during the course of their primary education. The learning support guidelines recommend high levels of co-operation between class teachers, learning support teachers and parents in supporting children who are experiencing learning difficulties.

In selecting pupils for remedial education, priority should be given to those pupils who achieve scores at or below the tenth percentile in standardised tests in literacy/numeracy. In order to allow for measurement error, consideration may be given to selecting pupils who achieve scores up to and including the 12th percentile. Once schools are satisfied that the needs of pupils who have very low achievement or serious learning difficulties have been met, a limited degree of flexibility may be exercised in the deployment of the learning support teacher. The above considerations determine the numbers of children attending remedial classes at any given time.

In addition to the learning support service, children assessed as having special educational needs who are attending ordinary schools on a fully integrated basis are entitled to the support of the resource teacher service. All schools have been advised of the procedures to be followed in accessing such support.

A proposed building project for the school in question will proceed to architectural planning and to the preparation of tender documents as soon as possible under the expanded school building programme. The allocation for primary buildings in 2002 is €153.6 million, which is a record level of funding and demonstrates this Government's commitment to improving the accommodation situation in primary schools. This is almost four times the previous Government's investment in 1997. Because of the greatly increased level of activity in the primary buildings area since this Government came into office, there has been a substantial increase in the number of major and minor building projects in construction and this has given rise to a record level of building and refurbishment activity.