Vol. 562 No. 3
80 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary schools likely to lose special education teachers under new rules agreed for the allocation of these teachers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5839/03]
There has been no change to the arrangements under which children in the primary system who have been professionally assessed as having special educational needs have an automatic entitlement to a response to their needs. As part of its evaluative role, my Department's inspectorate recently conducted a sample survey of 25 primary schools which had been allocated resource teacher and special needs assistant support. This review highlighted significant misapplication of the terms of the relevant departmental circulars. Arising from these concerns, arrangements were made for the national educational psychological service to carry out a review of a further 788 applications for such support on hands in my Department. The 788 applications in question involved a total of 1,590 individual pupils in respect of whom support was sought.
Of the 1,590 individual pupils involved, the review concluded that the applications in respect of 948, or 60%, of these pupils conformed with departmental circulars and the resources sought have been allocated. In the remaining 642 cases, the key deficiencies identified were situations where the level of support sought in respect of individual children in a particular disability category did not conform to the support levels identified in the circulars as applicable to the disability category in question, and situations where the relevant assessment reports required to support the application were not available at the school for inspection by the NEPS. Where possible in these latter cases, the NEPS made a recommendation as to the nature and level of the resources which should be provided and such resources have since been sanctioned.
