Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The education allocation for current expenditure in 2012, including from the national training fund, will be €8.604 billion. This represents approximately 17% of all current expenditure this year. Savings measures announced in the budget will provide net savings of €76 million in 2012, increasing to €241 million in 2014. Achieving savings in my Department's budget has required very difficult decisions to be made, particularly at a time when the schoolgoing population is increasing. We are dealing with a very difficult situation in the education sector where we have to find savings and control the increase in public sector numbers, considering that one third of all public sector employees work in the education sector.

It is important to note that a key aspect of the EU-IMF programme of support and Ireland's overall budgetary strategy is a requirement to reduce the public sector payroll. This is particularly challenging in the education sector; unlike other countries, our schoolgoing population is rising rapidly. Places have to be provided for the extra 70,000 pupils who will be arriving in schools in the next six years. Teachers have to be appointed to teach them. Providing for increased enrolments is a key priority but making some adjustment to teacher numbers is unavoidable, given the budgetary constraints. The net impact on overall teacher numbers in schools has been minimised to the greatest possible extent. It is important that we have effective redeployment arrangements in place to ensure all surplus permanent teachers are redeployed into vacancies in neighbouring schools. Despite the pressures on spending, the Government has shielded, to the greatest possible extent, front-line services in schools. There has been no increase in the mainstream staffing schedule general average of 28:1 for the allocation of classroom teachers at primary level. The overall number of special needs assistants and resource teachers will be maintained at current levels.

Notwithstanding certain cost implications, my Department has prioritised a reform agenda in certain key areas. Among the measures planned are implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy which will cost an additional €6 million in the current year; reform of the junior cycle which will cost an additional €1 million in the current year; the roll-out of 100 mbps broadband for second level schools which will cost €1.4 million in the current year; labour activation fund proposals to increase the number of places for jobless adults; and implementation of the report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism.

The Department introduced a general allocation mode, GAM, for primary schools in respect of teachers in September 2005 in order to provide additional permanent teaching resources to assist schools in making provision for children with learning support and higher incidence special educational needs such as mild general learning difficulty. Prior to the introduction of the GAM, schools had been required to apply for additional learning support resources based on assessments for each individual child with higher incidence needs. The staffing allocation for many schools under the GAM has not been updated since it was first introduced seven years ago in 2005. As part of the reforms to the teacher allocation process it will now be updated from September 2012 for all schools through a redistribution of existing resources. The combined resources available for GAM and language support services, currently a total of 4,700 posts, will be used to create a single simplified allocation process to cover GAM learning support and language support services. This new single allocation will be based on the number of classroom teaching posts in each school in the previous school year, that is, the allocation for the 2012-13 school year will be based on the number of mainstream classroom teaching posts in the previous school year. This simplified approach will make it easier to automatically update it annually in line with the changes in the number of classroom teachers in each school.

Schools will have autonomy on how to deploy the resource between language support and learning support services, depending on their specific needs. The single allocation process will involve the allocation of the equivalent of around 4,100 posts as follows: an allocation of five hours per week, or 0.2 of a post, to each mixed or all boys' school for every mainstream classroom teaching post; and an allocation of four hours per week, or 0.16 of a post, to each all girls' school for every mainstream classroom teaching post, rounded to the nearest 0.2 of a post to facilitate clustering into full-time posts.

I again confirm what I undertook to do in December, which was to make some adjustment to reflect the particular position of DEIS band one schools in the new GAM allocations. The details will be notified to schools in the coming weeks as part of the Department's staffing circular to schools.

The new GAM allocations are being made in five hour blocks, which is the equivalent of the tuition time in a full school day. Teachers who are in shared posts between schools can, therefore, operate local arrangements that enable their travel to a neighbouring school, where possible, from the start of the school day, thus avoiding loss of tuition time. The new GAM arrangements also provide for additional support to be given to schools with high concentrations of pupils who require language support.

With regard to resource posts and the allocations made by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, as part of the reforms to the teacher allocation process, existing posts will be used to put in place a network of about 2,450 full-time resource posts in over 1,600 base schools throughout the country that will be allocated on a permanent basis. This approach builds on the interim arrangements operated in 2011 but in a more structured and transparent manner. The annual changes in resource hours at individual school level will only have an effect where the teacher is working on any one day, they will not have an effect on whether the base school continues to host the full-time post. This approach will introduce greater constancy in the context of the annual allocations and redeployment process.

The teachers in these full-time resource posts will undertake NCSE approved - low incidence - resource hours in the base schools or neighbouring schools. Schools are typically notified of their NCSE approved resource hours in the late spring-early summer period but also throughout the school year. Through his or her role in allocating resources the local special education needs organiser, SENO, will have an oversight role in relation to the sharing arrangements between schools in order that they can operate as efficiently as possible and any time loss due to travel between schools can be kept to a minimum. Schools that are unable to access their NCSE approved resource hours from this network of full-time resource posts will be allocated mainly part-time temporary posts.

With regard to the staffing schedule for small primary schools, while there is no increase in the staffing schedule general average of 28:1 for the allocation of classroom teachers at primary level, there will be a phased increase in the pupil threshold for the allocation of classroom teachers in small primary schools. As part of the budgetary decisions the number of pupils required to gain and retain a teaching post in small primary schools will be gradually increased between September 2012 and September 2014. The schools concerned are those with four or fewer classroom teachers. It is important to emphasise that no small schools will be closed owing to the changes announced.

The phased adjustment is estimated to yield a saving of 250 teaching posts in the next three years, with 100 of these posts being removed in 2012-13 school year. The resulting surplus teachers will be redeployed to vacancies in neighbouring schools in accordance with the redeployment arrangements. The phasing of these measures provides the schools concerned with time to consider the potential for amalgamation with other schools where this is feasible. There is a significant number of small schools across the country. For the information of the House, there were once 6,500 primary schools in Ireland. Now, there are 3,200 mainstream primary schools.

I will deal now with the budget measures relating to guidance provision at post-primary level, which has been the subject of some discussion. Guidance posts at post-primary level will no longer be allocated to post-primary schools on an ex-quota basis - that is, the additional allocations for guidance provision will cease from September 2012. Guidance provision in future will be managed by schools from within their staffing schedule allocation. In this way, schools will have discretion to balance guidance needs with the pressures to provide subject choice. The relevant budget measures, including those relating to guidance, come into effect from September 2012. Schools will be notified in the normal manner in relation to these changes. My Department will issue a circular this month which will outline the staffing arrangements in schools for the 2012-13 school year.

Until now, a specific resource was provided for guidance in addition to the standard teacher allocation for post-primary schools. In future, schools will be obliged to meet their guidance requirements - these are statutory in nature - from within the overall resource provided by that normal staffing schedule. Individually, schools will be able to continue to make provision for guidance and counselling. Decisions on how this will be done will be taken at school level in the best interests of students and to ensure the best use of resources available. I am confident that school management and teachers will continue to work together to meet the needs of the students in their care.

The recent budget also provided for the filling of 300 assistant principal posts in post-primary schools. This is above the level originally planned and it will ensure that schools will have sufficient management positions to ensure appropriate supports - including those provided by year heads - will be available for all students. This is an important change which will reduce the impact of the moratorium on the filling of posts of responsibility in second level schools. Principals will now have something they have been seeking for a long period, namely, greater autonomy to decide the priorities as between subject provision and guidance counselling. I have no doubt that leaving certificate students will receive sufficient guidance, particularly in January when they are completing their CAO forms. Our schools are caring institutions and I am satisfied they will provide the necessary supports for vulnerable pupils in their care. All teachers, not just guidance counsellors, have a duty of care to their students.

The Government will continue to prioritise targeted supports for schools with the most concentrated levels of educational disadvantage through the delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, programme. These supports will be over and above those available to other schools. In the region of €700 million continues to be provided for tackling disadvantage across the education spectrum, from preschool to further and higher education. This includes schemes such as the school completion programme and disadvantaged youth, which is now under the aegis of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, and the school means programme, which is administered by the Department of Social Protection.

DEIS post-primary schools will be targeted for additional support through an improved staffing schedule of 18.25:1, which is an improvement of 0.75 when compared to the existing standard 19:1 which applies in post-primary schools that do not charge fees or to the 21:1 ratio which will apply in fee-charging schools. The Government is also providing €13 million in enhanced funding and €2 million in school book funding for DEIS schools, as well as a €26 million investment in home-school community liaison. All of these areas have been protected from reductions in expenditure for 2012. In addition, €27 million will be provided next year for the school completion programme, which is a major component of DEIS and which is funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

The DEIS action plan, implemented in 2005, represented a significant advance in dealing with educational disadvantage because it was the first comprehensive initiative in this area developed by drawing, in a co-ordinated fashion, on appropriate data sources to identify indicators of disadvantage which then provided the basis for the identification of schools for inclusion in a suite of integrated supports under the programme. DEIS recognises that barriers to the educational progress of children and young people are varied and are not just related to issues within the education system. It also recognises that solutions will not be found just within that system but by working in partnership with others across Departments and agencies and the wider community.

Prior to the introduction of DEIS in 2005, educational inclusion schemes had targeted additional supports to schools in disadvantaged areas under a range of unco-ordinated measures. Among these were the disadvantaged areas scheme, DAS, introduced in 1984 when Labour was previously in government, Breaking the Cycle, which was introduced in 1996, and Giving Children an Even Break, introduced in 2000. All of these were primarily aimed at reducing class sizes. Through a lack of integration of the schemes at their time of introduction, some schools were included in all schemes while others were included either in some or just one. Posts allocated under schemes which predated DEIS, which are the focus of the current adjustments, were retained by schools despite the fact that such measures were not warranted under the programme. It was considered essential that the focus should be on preserving the core activities and resources applied to DEIS because the programme provides for a more integrated and focused approach, addressing the educational needs of children and young people in disadvantaged communities from preschool through second level - in other words, between the ages of three and 18 - supported by a much increased emphasis on target-setting and measurement of progress and outcomes.

The aim of DEIS is to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed. Its core elements comprise a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and an integrated school support programme, SSP, which brings together and builds upon existing interventions for schools and school clusters-communities with a concentrated level of educational disadvantage. Following the comprehensive identification and review processes in 2005 and early 2006, and allowing for the inclusion of new and newly amalgamated schools and for closures, some 865 schools - 195 post-primary schools and 670 primary schools - are currently included in the SSP under DEIS.

DEIS primary schools are subdivided into three classifications to reflect rural and urban status and levels of disadvantage. These currently include 199 urban band 1, 144 urban band 2 and 327 rural primary schools. More than €158 million is being provided to make additional resources and supports available to primary and second level schools included in DEIS. These supports include more favourable pupil-teacher ratios in band 1; additional capitation funding; additional funding for school books; access to the school meals programme; access to numeracy-literacy supports and measures at primary level such as reading recovery, maths recovery and first steps; access to home-school community liaison services; access to the school completion programme; access to planning supports; access to range of professional development supports; provision for school library and librarian support for DEIS second level schools; and access to the junior certificate school programme and the leaving certificate applied.

Just prior to Christmas I received three evaluation reports on DEIS, which indicate that it is making a measurable contribution to improving outcomes for children in schools which benefit from it. Research and evaluation are essential tools underpinning DEIS and my Department has commissioned the Educational Research Centre, ERC, to conduct an ongoing independent evaluation of the SSP component of DEIS in primary and post-primary schools in order to assist in successful implementation of the programme and to assess its impact while ensuring that the best possible approaches to measuring progress and outcomes are implemented and that any adjustments to the programme will be made on the basis of the outcome from both the research and evaluation processes.

The first evaluation I received - which is the second in a series by the ERC - involves the evaluation of DEIS in urban primary schools, with a particular focus on achievement in English reading and mathematics based on testing carried out in 2007 and 2010. The initial findings of the evaluation show that when the overall average reading scores for urban schools for 2007 and 2010 were compared, there was an overall improvement in average reading and maths achievement. The improvements are statistically significant at all grade levels in both English reading and mathematics. Improvements are greatest at lower grade levels, with the largest gain among second class pupils. Progress appears most marked among pupils with lower levels of achievement. Positive change in achievement is most evident among junior grades. In addition, the inspectorate of the Department undertook evaluation in a sample of 36 DEIS schools and the findings are supportive and significant.

When the DEIS system was introduced at a time when the economic landscape was more favourable, as a concessionary measure schools were allowed to retain the staffing benefits they had under previous disadvantaged schemes in addition to resources provided under the new system. The previous schemes included the disadvantaged areas scheme, breaking the cycle, giving children an even break and the support teacher project. Schools not selected for DEIS but operating under older schemes also retained teaching and financial resources from these previous schemes up to 2008-09 when they were withdrawn under the budget of the previous Government. A decision was taken to withdraw 428 posts from earlier disadvantage programmes and schemes in 270 primary schools and 163 post-primary schools. A total of 20 of these posts were allocated to the professional development service for teachers to work directly with schools providing in-service relating to the implementation of literacy and numeracy under the national literacy strategy.

The implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy for the period 2011-20 includes a commitment to support enhanced literacy and numeracy provision for students from socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. For some schools particularly impacted by the withdrawal of disadvantage posts, several teaching posts are being held in reserve to reduce the impact of changes. These are associated with the schools most acutely affected by these measures. The special position of DEIS schools will also be recognised in adjustments to the general allocation model, which is used to allocate learning and language support teaching posts to schools.

All schools will be notified in the coming weeks of their staffing entitlements under the new arrangement, including any alleviation measures that may apply. This will allow schools to plan for the school year beginning in September. Conscious of the concerns of some schools that will be adversely affected by this measure, I have met with school principals, teachers, parents and communities in recent weeks to hear their concerns and to clarify the position in respect of changes announced under budget 2012 to posts allocated to schools under previous schemes to tackle educational disadvantage. I have also held many meetings with members of my parliamentary party and all Government colleagues, who have performed an invaluable service in allowing me to develop our understanding of the actual impact of the proposed measures on these schools. Consequently, I have asked my Department for a report within the next four weeks on the position of DEIS band 1 and DEIS band 2 schools which currently have posts under older schemes in the context of the staffing allocations due to issue to all schools in the coming weeks. I have attempted to make it clear at all stages that we wish to examine the exact situation as it pertains to each individual DEIS school on a case-by-case basis. This report is the next step in that examination.

As we have stated in the amendment to the motion, I wish to place on the record my admiration and appreciation of the extraordinary commitment, dedication and affection involved in alleviating educational disadvantage within our schools. I refer in particular to the work of teachers, principals, staff, parents and wider school communities in ensuring the continued success of the DEIS scheme and the education of so many children from disadvantaged homes and communities. This work allows children to experience a genuine equality of opportunity which was denied to too many children in this country for too many years.

My personal commitment, and the stated objective of the Government is to continue working to develop strategies that will strive to eliminate educational disadvantage from our society. I hope that all DEIS band 1 and DEIS band 2 schools will be assured of our commitment to resolve the current issues within the timeframe I have outlined. After all, we have an honourable record in democratic politics, especially in the area of education and it is my intention to live up to that record.

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