Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 June 2005
549 Mr. G. Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Science, further to Parliamentary Question No. 58 of 14 June 2005 if she accepts that in exceptional circumstances the new directives on resource teachers is going to cause serious problems for some persons (details supplied); and if some appeal process will be put in place. [21028/05]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy will be aware, the school was previously in a clustering arrangement with four other schools. As a result of the allocation of additional resources to schools in the cluster, it was necessary to revise the clustering arrangements. The revised clustering arrangement means that the school will no longer be clustered with the previous base school. It is a matter for the board of management of the new base school to determine the teacher who will fill the general allocation post to service the revised cluster. The posts being provided under the new general allocation scheme are designed to ensure each school has enough resource teaching hours to meet the needs of children with high incidence special needs, such as dyslexia and children with learning support needs. Resource teaching hours for children with low incidence special needs such as hearing impaired will continue to be provided on the basis of an individual application for each child.
With regard to which pupils in the school with high incidence special needs and learning support needs will receive support from the resource teacher, this decision will be made at school level. Each school will have enough resource teaching hours to provide its pupils with support appropriate to their needs. The school can then use its professional judgement to decide how these hours are divided between different children in the school, to ensure that all their needs are met. Research shows that some children with special needs respond better with one-to-one tuition. Others, however, do better when taught in small groups. Often it is best for resource teachers to work with children in the classroom rather than taking them away to a separate room, as the children then have to catch up work done by the rest of the class in their absence. The response needed depends on the child.
