Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 52: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the details regarding the new allocation system for resources for children with special educational needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19938/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, a new scheme for allocating resource teachers to schools to cater for the needs of children with high incidence special needs and learning support needs was announced last month. The reason for the new scheme is simple. Children with special needs such as dyslexia or mild learning difficulties are found in almost every school. It makes sense then that every school should have a number of resource teaching hours based on the number of pupils in the school.

This is a major improvement on the previous system, under which children with high incidence special needs required a psychological assessment before they were given resource teaching hours by the Department. This was a time consuming process that often led to delays in children getting the support they needed. Resource teachers will now be in place in the school from the start of the school year, so children who need their assistance can get it straight away. Under the new arrangement, disadvantaged schools, boys' schools and mixed schools get extra resources as research shows that pupils in these schools are more likely to have learning difficulties. To ensure that every school has enough resource teaching hours to meet the needs of its pupils, an extra 660 resource teaching posts are being put in place for next September. Some 340 of these are permanent posts and 320 are temporary posts being provided to ensure that children who had been given an individual allocation of resource teaching hours by my Department will keep these in circumstances where the general allocation to the school would not be sufficient to allow the school to provide these hours from within its general allocation.

Provision of these temporary posts will ensure that no child for whom my Department has allocated a specific number of hours with a resource teacher will lose these under these new arrangements. The majority of schools are gaining resource teaching hours under the new scheme.

As the Deputy will be aware, the need to address the concerns of small and rural schools was the reason I initiated a review of the original general allocation model announced last year, to come into effect in the 2005-06 school year. Following this review, a special improved ratio for small schools has been introduced to ensure that they are given resource teaching hours on a more favourable basis.

I stress that despite misleading claims to the contrary, the new scheme does not prevent schools from giving one to one time with a resource teacher to any child who needs such support. Rather, it ensures that each school has enough resources to ensure that each child gets a level of support appropriate to his or her individual needs. The school can then use its professional judgment to decide how to divide these hours between different children in the school to ensure that all their needs are met.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Research shows that some children with special needs will respond better with one to one tuition. Others, however, do better when taught in small groups. Often it is best for resource teachers to work with children in the classroom rather than taking them away to a separate room, as the children then have to catch up on work done by the rest of the class in their absence. The point is that the type of response needed depends on the child. While the new scheme will not prevent schools from allowing one to one time with the resource teacher to children who need it, it is important to note that one to one teaching is not the best option for every child.

I am grateful to the Minister for Finance for providing me with the resources to ensure that the new system could be put in place. As of next September there will be more than 5,000 teachers in our primary schools working directly with children with special needs, including those requiring learning support. This compares to under 1,500 in 1998. One out of every five primary school teachers is now working specifically with children with special needs.

The Government is deeply committed to improving services for children with special needs. In addition to the massive increase in resource teachers in recent years, the introduction of this new general allocation scheme will ensure a faster and more flexible response for children with special needs.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Have the students or their parents been notified that they have lost resource teaching hours in recent months? Will these hours be reallocated from September in light of the fact that the Minister just stated no pupil will lose out under the new system? Many pupils have been contacted recently to tell them they will lose resource teaching hours.

What is the number of appeals in the new system? Is the Minister aware that her Department, based in Athlone, has been giving advice to principals not to bother appealing because the system will not be changed? I am disappointed the allocations were made at such short notice and so close to the end of the school year.

Does the Minister intend to make any changes to the system? Can she explain to me the position on a boys' school and girls' school in the same town, both of which are classified as disadvantaged and taking students from the same catchment area?

The boys' school was originally told a ratio of 1:80 would apply to it but it has now been told the ratio will be 1:135. It has lost out severely under the new system, yet the girls' school has gained and has a greater allocation than the boys' school. This seems to contradict the original intention behind the weighted system. Will these individual cases be considered?

Can the Minister change the system concerning circumstances where a school has a general allocation model with associated figures of 0.7 or 0.71 and 14 low-incidence hours, for example? If one combines these figures, one is dealing with more than one full teaching post, yet many schools have lost a teaching post and are receiving a temporary teaching post instead. It would be far more beneficial for such schools to have a permanent teacher.

I am also concerned that children with special needs under this system, especially those in the low-incidence category, are more likely to be taught by temporary teachers than permanent teachers. How long will temporary teachers be in the system? Is there a definite timeframe?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I will start with the final question. The temporary teachers will be in the system as long as the individual child who has the individual allocation is in the primary school. Only when the child leaves will the hours be lost to the school.

The children in the low-incidence category, that is, those with a more severe disability, are dealt with through a process that is entirely separate to this scheme. They will continue to be assessed separately and will continue to be allocated their hours separately. Since those allocations are given to individual children, it would not be appropriate to link them to the high-incidence children for the purpose of creating permanent posts. The advantage of the high-incidence allocation is that the posts in question will exist irrespective of who the individual children are. Even when the low-incidence children, that is, those with a more severe disability, move to secondary school, the high-incidence allocation will remain on a permanent basis. This is why it is not possible to link the two categories.

Boys and girls are being treated differently. I do not know of individual circumstances but there is a different allocation for boys in recognition of the fact that, for some reason, the incidence of learning difficulties is much higher among boys than girls. We have also made a different allocation to the disadvantaged schools.

I appreciate that short notice was given coming up to the end of the school year. However, it was important to make the correct decision. An allocation of 660 teachers was worth waiting for in respect of both the transitional and permanent posts. I am conscious that the allocation was made at the same time as the allocation of the mainstream teachers. Many of the phone calls received from schools throughout the country have related to all of these factors. The mainstream allocation, the resource teacher allocation and the clustering arrangements all came together. The Department has been very flexible regarding the clustering arrangements.

Some schools came up with their own solutions and ideas. These are being worked through in conjunction with the INTO. There were a number of difficulties at the outset but, from all our information, they are being sorted out. The process is settling down. The Department is working very closely with those concerned.

There is not an appeals system per se because the allocations are based on school numbers. However, we are seeking to ensure that the allocations of developing schools, for example, will be considered from September. Where schools might be redesignated under the new DEIS programme or where they fall under the disadvantaged category, we will ensure their needs are met immediately under that scheme.

The only reason children would lose resource teaching hours would be if the special educational needs organiser determined over the preceding months that they no longer needed them. However, it is still open to schools to make a one to one allocation or an allocation to small groups. Research shows that where some children do better on a one to one basis, others do better in groups. It is up to the individual school to use its resources. Knowing that the resources are available on a permanent basis is a great reassurance for a school because it knows it will be able to identify the children with special educational needs very quickly and allocate resources to them according to need.