Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 June 2004
78 Ms Enright asked the Minister for Education and Science if all outstanding applications for special educational resources will be dealt with before the beginning of the 2004-05 academic year and the current backlog cleared; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19652/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt is my intention that all applications for special educational resources received by 30 June 2004 will be responded to before the commencement of the 2004-05 school year. Applications for resource teacher support that were received between 15 February and 31 August 2003 for which a response is outstanding have been considered and schools have been notified of the outcome. This outcome indicates to schools the resources that may be put in place immediately. Applications received after 31 August 2003 and by 30 June 2004 will be processed in the near future and the outcome will be notified to schools before the commencement of the 2004-05 school year.
The teacher allocations involved will be made in the context of a new weighted system I announced recently. An additional 350 teacher posts are being provided to facilitate the introduction of the new system. The system will involve a general weighted allocation for all primary schools to cater for pupils with higher incidence special educational needs such as, for example, those with borderline mild and mild general learning disability, specific learning disability and those with learning support needs. It will also allow for individual allocations in respect of pupils with lower incidence special educational needs.
The weighted allocation will be made as follows: in the most disadvantaged schools, as per the urban dimension of Giving Children an Even Break, a teacher of pupils with special educational needs will be allocated for every 80 pupils to cater for the subset of pupils with higher incidence special needs; in all-boys schools, the ratio will be one teacher for every 140 pupils; in mixed schools, or all-girls schools with an enrolment of greater than 30% boys, it will be one teacher for every 150 pupils; and in all-girls schools, including those with mixed junior classes but with 30% or less boys overall, it will be one for every 200 pupils. It is intended that the details of the new model will be set out in a comprehensive circular to issue to schools for the commencement of the new school year.
The weighted allocation will enable teaching support to be provided to pupils with higher incidence special educational needs and this will obviate the need for schools to submit individual applications for pupils in the higher incidence categories. Schools may continue to apply for specific teacher allocations in respect of pupils with lower incidence disabilities.
My Department proposes to devise clusters in respect of allocations to be made under the weighted model. Sanction for the filling of posts will be considered in the context of these clusters and the weighted arrangements. The Department will communicate with schools in this regard before the commencement of the coming school year.
Schools which have applied for special needs assistant support will be advised of the outcome of their applications as soon as possible in advance of the next school year. Account is being taken of existing levels of special needs assistant support allocation in schools. In cases where a reduction in the level of special needs assistant support is proposed, there will be provision for schools to appeal, having regard to the care needs of the pupils concerned.
My Department recognises the difficulties some schools have been experiencing while awaiting the outcome of applications for special educational resources and the introduction of the weighted model. As stated previously, the process has been complex and time-consuming and I am endeavouring to have all aspects completed as quickly as possible. I again acknowledge the co-operation and support of schools in this regard.
The Minister should accept that it was not just schools which suffered. Some children lost an entire year — in some cases even longer — of their education while this matter was being resolved. I hope I misheard him but I was of the impression that the Minister informed Deputy O'Sullivan that he could not deal with the special needs issue because he is dealing with the resource teacher issue. I do not believe we can deal with any of these matters in isolation because they all form part of the same package.
Approximately 6,000 children in respect of whom applications were made were assessed by psychologists etc. who decided on the number of hours of assistance they required. However, in light of the fact that these children will be dealt with under the new weighted system, will they be provided with the number of hours recommended for them or will some of them have access to fewer hours of assistance?
I am sure the Minister has been contacted by many teachers. How does he intend to address the concern of those in smaller schools, rural and urban, that they will lose out? I was contacted by a school which will be obliged to deal with a 40% reduction in the number of hours available to it under the new system. I spoke to a principal of a boys' school yesterday which comes under the category where there will be one teacher per 140 pupils. The latter is a significant reduction for disadvantaged schools in terms of the number of hours to which they will have access. How does the Minister envisage the children involved obtaining the assistance they require which, in many instances, was recommended for them? Is he satisfied that there will not be a reduction? Are teachers and principals who state that there will be a reduction wrong? Does the Minister believe that children will receive the service they need if there is a reduction?
I am confident the students in the schools will receive the service they require under the new model. That is not to state that every school will have the same level of resources as previously. It is important to make that distinction. We carried out an audit of all schools throughout the country in respect of the resources they possess. There are some which are significantly over-resourced, particularly in terms of the number of special needs pupils enrolled in them. Such schools will obviously not have the same number of special needs teachers or support as was the case heretofore.
My aim is to ensure that, as regards pupils with special needs, resources will be matched to places where the need is greatest. If the Deputy was referring to a disadvantaged school or a school in a disadvantaged area which was informed that its allocation will be 1:140, a mistake has been made because, as outlined in my initial reply, the ratio in designated disadvantaged areas is one teacher to 80 pupils.
It is less than that.
It could not be less than they are getting at present because the system as it stands would equate to approximately 1:175 or 1:200. It is in that range, though I am not saying it was done that way. A school getting one teacher to 80 pupils will be in a significantly improved situation. Having looked at the audit, there are schools which will win and which will lose in this system, but they will only lose on the basis that they are currently overresourced. Schools which are underresourced will get the full resources to match the number of pupils they have by September 2005, when the weighted model comes fully into play.
Will the Minister address the issue of the pupils? That was the main part of the question and it was not answered. Will the 6,000 pupils who were assessed get what was recommended for them?
The time for this question has expired.
