Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Ensuring that all children get the support they need to do well at school is a major priority for the Government. To ensure children with low levels of competence can succeed at school, my Department gives additional support to their schools which can take the form of financial assistance, additional temporary teacher posts or portions of teacher posts. Guidelines have also been produced for teachers on teaching English as an additional language, and these are available on the NCCA website.

The level of extra financial or teaching support provided for any school is determined by the numbers of non-English speaking students enrolled. Each school management can decide on the structure of the support to be provided in its own school. An allocation of two years' language support for each pupil is provided by my Department. Schools with 14 or more qualifying pupils get an additional full-time temporary teacher. Those with 28 or more get two teachers. Primary schools with between three and 13, inclusive, qualifying pupils enrolled will receive grant assistance for a period of up to two years. Schools with between three and eight qualifying pupils receive grant assistance of €6,348.69 while schools with between nine and 13 pupils receive grant assistance of €9,523.04. In the current school year grant assistance will be provided to approximately 425 primary schools with 13 or fewer qualifying pupils. In the case of post-primary schools which have 13 or fewer qualifying pupils enrolled, additional teaching hours, ranging from three hours per week in respect of one such pupil to 19.5 hours per week in respect of 13 pupils, are sanctioned.

Recent years have seen a significant rise in the number of language support posts being provided by my Department. In the current school year, 541 whole-time equivalent language support teachers are in place at primary level and 262 whole-time equivalent teachers are in place at second level to support such pupils, representing a language support investment of €46.5 million. This compares to 149 and 113 teachers respectively in the school year 2001-02. Thus, there has been a four-fold increase in language support teachers at primary level in just four years.

The Government has been increasing resources in this area in line with rising demand. However, this is a relatively new area which must be kept under review to ensure that children are getting the support they need and that this support is proving effective in helping them to make the most of their time at school. I am conscious of the pressures on those schools that have a great number of children whose first language is not English and whose cultures and expectations of education can be very different from our own. While this year there are more than 800 language support teachers in our schools, I know this is only part of the equation. Schools with significant numbers of non-national children need extra supports to help them to engage with these children's parents and I am working on proposals on this.

See this speech in context