Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue with my colleague, Deputy Costello. Last week, we met some teachers from north inner-city Dublin who told us that 14 schools there will lose resource hours this year. I spoke to a principal in my constituency today who told me that her school will lose four resource teachers this year in the context of the introduction of the weighted system.

It seems completely wrong that the most disadvantaged schools are losing resource teachers for children with special needs at a time when the Government is talking about addressing educational disadvantage. The Minister must re-examine the weighting system in the context of these specific schools. I do not mean in the general context, because it is working well for most schools. However, a number of severely disadvantaged schools are losing out because they have many more children with special needs than the national average. This is the nub of this issue.

The Minister is aware of this because she herself recently launched a document called, "Reading Literacy in Disadvantaged Primary Schools", which showed that on average, the level of literacy problems in disadvantaged schools is more than three times that of schools in general and that up to half the children in some schools have severe literacy problems. Hence, the Minister has the evidence to show that the weighted model does not work in schools where there is a high level of disadvantage in which one has a large number of children who require one-to-one help and are considerably below average in terms of literacy and numeracy. This must be addressed in a specific way for these schools.

I suggest the Minister either halves the existing 80:1 ratio or else, which would be preferable, provides the resources to these schools on the basis of need. This can be done by ensuring that there are enough NEPS psychologists to carry out the assessment of need for these children. They will have problems later on in their school careers if they do not receive the requisite attention in the earlier stages of primary school.

I will give an example of something we were told by a teacher last week. In the current context, children in an inner city school, who would have received resources up to now, will no longer do so. This is because although they are below average, they are not at the lowest level. Such children will no longer receive the resources because they are in a disadvantaged school. However, were they to move to one of the more affluent suburbs, where there were fewer children with special needs, they would then receive resource support. While the same child with the same problem would not receive help in a disadvantaged school, he or she would do so in a more advantaged school. There must be something wrong with such a system and I urge the Minister for Education and Science as well as the Minister of State who represents her this evening to ensure that this is addressed so that such children will receive the support they need.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I also welcome the opportunity of raising this issue, because it is a serious problem in my constituency. The problem occurs in small urban and small rural schools and in particular, those in disadvantaged areas lose out. As Deputy O'Sullivan has noted, it is ironic that if the same people attended school in a more affluent area, the lower level of disadvantage and special needs would enable them to receive one-to-one educational attention. However, given the intensity of disadvantage and the intensity of special needs education requirements in inner city schools and in small schools in particular, the situation remains lopsided because of the weighting system.

I wish to ensure that people are not discriminated against in this manner. At a minimum, no school should lose out as a result of the new weighted system. Most parts of the country have benefitted because of their low proportion of special needs requirements. However, schools have not benefitted where there is a high proportion of special needs requirements, but have lost out. As Deputy O'Sullivan has noted, 14 schools in my constituency have already lost at least one teacher and other teaching posts are under threat and may well be lost next year.

I understand that a review will take place next month to mark the end of the year. It must take these matters into consideration so that either the ratio is reduced or it ensures that all the teachers who were there to begin with remain. While a proper assessment of needs should also be carried out, at present this is impossible, as there are insufficient psychologists available to do it. However, we know that a child loses out if he or she is not assessed at the proper time, and his or her needs identified, if he or she has special needs.

Hence, a serious problem exists. I hope the Minister recognises it and that it will be included in the review mechanism that is to be implemented next month. I also hope the Minister can ensure that all the affected schools will retain the teachers they have and can ensure that they benefit further from the new weighted system.

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to have been given the opportunity by Deputies O'Sullivan and Costello to clarify the position of the Department of Education and Science in respect of the new general allocation system. The general allocation of learning support or resource teachers is intended to cater for children with learning support and high incidence special educational needs. The system was constructed so that learning support or resource teacher allocations would be based on pupil numbers, taking into account the differing needs of the most disadvantaged schools and the evidence that boys have greater difficulties than girls in this regard.

The new system has a number of benefits associated with it: it puts resources in place on a more systematic basis, thereby giving schools more certainty about their resource levels; it facilitates early intervention as the resource is in place when the child enrols; it reduces the need for individual applications and supporting psychological assessments; and it allows flexibility to school management in the deployment of resources, leading to a more effective and efficient delivery of services.

In introducing the general allocation system, transitional arrangements were also introduced whereby transitional hours were allocated to schools to cater for children for whom individual teaching resources had previously been allocated, but which it would not have been possible for the school to continue to provide from its general allocation. In the circumstances, no child should have experienced a loss of resource teaching support.

It has always been the case that schools in receipt of resource teacher support in respect of pupils with special educational needs would lose teacher support, either full posts or part-time hours, when the pupils that triggered the extra support left the school.

In the circumstances, the Department of Education and Science has no plans to change the current mechanism of allocating teaching resources to schools to support pupils with special educational needs. It is intended that a review of the general allocation model will be undertaken within three years of operation. The Department is satisfied that at this stage, the general allocation system is working well and has been favourably received by schools. The Department will continue to work with schools and the education partners with a view to ensuring that this remains the case in the future.

There are now more than 5,000 teachers in our primary schools working directly with children with special needs, including those requiring learning support. This compares with fewer than 1,500 in 1998. One out of every five primary school teachers is now working specifically with children with special needs.

The Department of Education and Science has recently issued a comprehensive circular to all primary schools regarding the organisation of teaching resources for pupils who need additional support in mainstream primary schools. The main purpose of this circular is to provide guidance for schools on the deployment and organisation of the teaching resources allocated under the general allocation model. This circular also refers to the deployment of additional teaching resources that are allocated to schools for the support of individual pupils with low incidence disabilities.

The Deputies may be aware that the Department has introduced a new action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS, that is, delivering equality of opportunity in schools, which aims to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people, from pre-school to completion of upper second level education, that is, from three to 18 years, from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed. The new plan is the outcome of the first full review of all programmes for tackling educational disadvantage that have been put in place over the past 20 years and it will involve an additional annual investment of some €40 million on full implementation. It will also involve the creation of approximately 300 additional posts across the education system generally. A key element of this new action plan is the implementation of a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage in our primary and second level schools, which will result in improved targeting of resources at those most in need. The identification and analysis processes are being managed by the Educational Research Centre on behalf of the Department of Education and Science. As a result of the identification process, approximately 600 primary schools, comprising 300 urban-town, 300 rural and 150 second level schools, will be included in a new school support programme. The programme will bring together and build upon a number of existing interventions for schools and school clusters-communities with a concentrated level of educational disadvantage. Officials in the Department anticipate that they will be in a position to notify participating schools in time for the next school year regarding the outcome of the ongoing identification process. I thank the Deputies once again for affording me the opportunity to clarify the position regarding the general allocation system.