Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 May 2012
63 Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will uphold the appeal of a person (details supplied) in County Donegal and reinstate the ten hours teaching time that is to be cut from the school from September, 2012, onwards. [25793/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe criteria used for the allocation of teachers to schools is published annually on my Department's website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing arrangements in schools for the 2012/2013 school year can also be affected by changes in their enrolment, the impact of budget measures and the reforms to the teacher allocation process. A key part of the reforms of the allocation process was to facilitate a long overdue updating of the GAM (learning support) allocation for all schools. The criteria for the allocation of GAM hours by school type including DEIS schools are outlined in circular 007/2012. The reform inevitably involves changes to existing clustering arrangements whereby a teacher is shared between schools. A further change is that schools in any locality are being empowered to cluster and arrange their GAM resources in a manner that best suits their local needs.
The staffing arrangements include provision for an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Appeals Board. The school referred to by the Deputy submitted an appeal and the Board upheld this appeal at its meeting on the 18th and 19th April 2012. The school has been notified accordingly.
64 Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on statistics which show newly qualified teachers have to wait, on average, eight to nine years to acquire a full-time, permanent position and that 93% of teachers are still on fixed-term contracts after two years of teaching, a figure that is more than double the OCED average. [25786/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI assume the Deputy is referring to post-primary level. I acknowledge that the various budget measures that have taken place in recent years can limit the employment opportunities for newly qualified teachers. However, there are limits to the number of teaching posts that we can afford to fund as a country.
The redeployment of surplus permanent teachers is the first mechanism to fill teaching posts in schools. This is key to the ability of my Department to manage within its payroll budget and ceiling on teacher numbers.
Thereafter, teaching posts are filled in the normal manner through the recruitment process at individual school level. This gives employment opportunities for teachers on fixed-term or part-time contracts and also newly qualified teachers.
Teaching resources are allocated to schools on a school year basis. The bulk of teaching posts in schools are allocated on a permanent basis. Unlike most other areas of the public service teaching vacancies continue to be filled in accordance with published Department criteria. The Government has prioritised, as best as possible, the filling of front-line posts in the Education sector within the constraints of the Employment Control Framework. This is all the more challenging to achieve at a time of rapidly increasing enrolments in our schools.
66 Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reverse his decision to cut a teacher from a school (details supplied) i gContae na Gaillimhe in view of the fact that they have now confirmed to his Department that they have the 85 students necessary to retain four teachers as per his Department’s guidelines. [25783/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe school referred to by the Deputy is a small school in the Gaeltacht. As part of the new staffing arrangements my Department has expanded the existing appeals process so that it is accessible to the small primary schools that are losing a classroom post as a result of the budget measure. Such schools will not lose their classroom post if they are projecting increased enrolments in September 2012 that would be sufficient to allow them to retain their existing classroom posts over the longer term. The school submitted an appeal to the Staffing Appeals Board. All appeals submitted to the Primary Staffing Appeal Board were considered in accordance with the published appeals criteria that is set out in my Department's Staffing Circular 0007/2012. This was done at its meeting on 18th and 19th April. The appeal by the school was unsuccessful on the basis that the school did not meet the published appeal criteria. The Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final. However, the Appeal Board will review this decision in September if the school's actual enrolment in September 2012 increases to the required level.
A total of 367 schools submitted appeals to the April meeting of the Appeals Board. 205 schools had their appeals upheld by the Staffing Appeals Board. A summary outcome of the appeals is now published on my Department's website. Individual schools have been notified of the outcome of their appeals.
The next meeting of Staffing Appeals Board is due to be held on 14 June 2012. The latest date for other schools to submit appeals is 1 June 2012.
The final staffing position for all schools will ultimately not be known until the Autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed and all appeals to the Staffing Appeals Board will have been considered.
