Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2024
331. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Education if she could ensure that a school (details supplied) which is losing an SET teacher is included in the review process, and if she will restore complex needs as a requirement in allocating teachers. [10715/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI want to thank the Deputy for raising this issue.
The Special Education teaching allocation model for 2024/25 distributes the total available number of SET posts in line with each school’s profile of need.
It seeks to distribute teaching resources in the fairest possible manner, taking into account quality, robust evidence in respect of individual schools.
This ensures that resources are in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of children in mainstream.
There will more Special Education Teachers in our schools in September 2024 than ever before – an increase of 1,000 from 2020/21 school year. This is in addition to a significant reduction in class teachers sizes at primary level over three budgets to where our PTR at primary level is now 23:1.
This means, more than ever, children with SEN in our mainstream schools are best supported to meet their needs.
In addition the model will now be run annually in line with general teacher allocations. This allows schools to better plan their staffing structures and gives them time to arrange clusters in areas where schools share an SET teacher.
There has been a limited change to the method used to allocate SET to mainstream classes. This review involved extensive consultation and visits to schools by the NCSE to look at the strengths and shortcomings of the allocation model. The feedback has been incorporated into the revised model for 2024/25.
The review of the SET model focused on ensuring that we had the best possible data available to inform the distribution of resources to our schools.
Our policy relating to supporting all of our children in our schools based on their level of need remains.
The policy that individual schools are required to adhere to is the principle that the allocation is utilised to ensure that those pupils with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of support and this remains unchanged.
Therefore the revised profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of need in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
In relation to the specific school mentioned in your question, I would like to advise that the school continues to have 8 fulltime SET teachers posts as before and the part time hours have reduced by 15 hours which relates to a change in the schools profile particularly due to a reduction in enrolments since the last profile update.
I would like to clarify that complex needs have not been removed but the data is no longer coming from the HSE but from education related sources.
At primary, the Educational Teaching needs profile is calculated based on educational outcome (STen) data which are collected and held within schools and submitted to the Department of Education. At post primary, the data used is Junior Cycle results. Hence, the profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of teaching need in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
In addition, to ensure children with the greatest level of educational need are addressed by the model all pupils who are marked as exempt (approx. 1% of the population) are included as STen 1 to ensure that the school receives an allocation to support them. STen 1 & 2 scores (including exempted) would align in general to pupils in our education system who are in need of the greatest level of teaching support.
