Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is no overall reduction in resource teacher numbers for the coming school year. The number of posts available to the National Council for Special Education for allocation is 5,265, which is the same as last year. We must ensure we provide the service. That 5,265 is in addition to the 4,450 learning support teachers provided to all schools to support children with less complex learning needs, giving a total of 9,950 teachers for children with special educational needs. We need to hear from the NCSE as to why there is an increase in the overall population of 1.3% and the correlation between that and the massive increase in demand. That needs to be interpreted in some way.

We must also ensure we get the best possible use of the €1.3 billion spent annually to support children with special educational needs. That is why we asked the NCSE last year to provide the policy advice on how students with special educational needs should be supported in future. One of the recommendations made by the NCSE in its policy advice is that a new model should be developed for the allocation of additional teaching resources to mainstream schools based on the profiled need of each school. On foot of this advice, the Minister asked the NCSE to proceed immediately to establish a working group to develop a proposal for consideration of a revised allocation mechanism as set out in the principal recommendation of the report. The aim of this new mechanism will be to ensure all learning support and resource teacher posts are allocated to schools in line with the schools' educational profile and need for such support rather than using other mechanisms such as the number of students in a school or the number of class teachers in a school.

We are conscious there are challenges, and in making any changes to our supports for children with special educational needs, we also need to protect the gains we have made. Based on the allocation of resources from 1993 to now, there has been a massive increase in the level of support by the State for this area. I wish to give assurance that consultation will be a key aspect in the implementation of any of the recommendations.

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