Ms Mary Byrne:

A number of the questions have revolved around the supports schools have or need. I draw the attention of the committee to the fact that the Department and the Government have approved a pilot scheme for a new school inclusion model to be carried out from September in one area. It is based on recommendations made by the NCSE that students with behavioural, communication and sensory difficulties and so on require the appropriate supports at the right time. To put some of the appropriate supports in place, we will have a range of supports provided in the pilot scheme area. For example, the NCSE will have speech and language therapists and some behavioural practitioners and occupational therapists available. We will be trying to work with the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, the HSE and other services in the area to see what model of support we can put in place in schools to build their capacity to work with students with the most challenging needs. The project will be evaluated and it will be very interesting to see the outcomes for students and whether fewer of them will need to be on reduced timetables. It is a really important project which is of relevance in this area.

It is not just in Ireland that we are hearing about an increase in the number of children on reduced timetables. It is a phenomenon in a number of countries. It is also important to stand back and look not just at the reduced timetables. Ms Hanahoe referred to this issue. It would be really good to look at what is driving the increase and the reasons behind it. Given that we know that it is an international phenomenon, perhaps Ireland might play a part in setting up an international research project to look at it. We were thinking funding might perhaps be given to the Educational Research Centre or an agency like it. We are not on our own in dealing with this issue.

Schools have a responsibility to ensure those teachers with the greatest experience and qualifications are working with students with the greatest needs. While undoubtedly many schools try to do this, we are sometimes disappointed to hear of instances where that is not the case and particularly about how teachers are deployed to special classes. We are sometimes told that principals find it hard to get their experienced teachers to take these classes, sometimes because they are not confident enough or believe they do not have the requisite skills. However, they are not really reasons not to give the class to the most experienced and most qualified teachers.

I was asked about three specific things I would like to address. Senator Kelleher kindly suggested we might need more powers and resources to tackle these issues. Actually the NCSE considers itself to be only part of the picture which is much wider than students with special educational needs. While we have given consideration to whether our organisation should be collecting these data, we believe we could get an inaccurate picture. We would only obtain information on students with special educational needs; it would not be right for us to collect information on other students. We need a comprehensive approach to data collection and believe schools should be enabled to report centrally in order that we get a composite, comprehensive picture across schools and students.

The recommendation on the capitation grant and the reduction in it were brought up by two or three members. We did suggest the Department might consider it. What we had in mind was that while, of course, schools needed to be supported, perhaps the Department also needed to consider a disincentive for schools that might be over-engaging in the practice of having reduced timetables. It was in that context that we made the recommendation. I was asked about the role of parents and whether they were fully engaged in arriving at a mutually acceptable agreement. I do not know the answer to that question because we do not have the data.

On the very last point, to my knowledge, the NCSE did not receive an invitation to engage in a round-table discussion. We generally engage in such discussions.