Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Tá mé ag freagairt thar ceann an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíochta, an Teachta Batt O'Keeffe. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as ucht an ábhar tábhachtach seo a chur faoi bhráid an tSeanaid.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to outline to the House the position with regard to the payment of an allowance to teachers of students with special educational needs. As the Senator may be aware, in addition to holding a relevant qualification in the area of special educational needs, there are other criteria that a teacher must satisfy to qualify for payment of an additional allowance. A primary teacher must also hold a permanent position in a sanctioned post in an area of special education. A post-primary teacher must spend a minimum of 12 hours per week working with pupils who have special educational needs. There are also other conditions attached to the retention of this allowance, namely, primary and post-primary teachers who voluntarily leave their posts in the area of special educational needs within the school will not be entitled to retain the allowance. The current rate of this allowance is €2,502 per annum.

Prior to 2006 the Department of Education and Science funded access to a number of post-graduate programmes of continuing professional development, two of which were a programme of training in special educational needs for teachers working with students with special educational needs in primary and post-primary schools, which satisfied one of the criteria in order to qualify for payment of the allowance, and a programme of training for teachers working with students in primary and post-primary schools requiring learning support and which did not warrant payment of an additional allowance as it did not provide them with the necessary skills to cater for the needs of students with special educational needs.

In 2005, the Department introduced the general allocation model of provision which immediately provided an additional 660 special needs teachers to enable schools to cater for the needs of pupils with high incidence special education needs. Outlining the provisions of the scheme, the Department issued a circular to all primary schools providing advice in regard to the re-organisation of teaching resources for students requiring learning support and resource teaching support in primary schools.

The model provides for a general weighted allocation for all primary schools to enable schools to cater for the needs of pupils with higher incidence special education needs, those with learning support needs, borderline mild and mild general learning disability and dyslexia without the need for individual applications and psychological assessments. It also allows for individual allocations in respect of pupils with more acute needs.

The new system put in place resources on a more systematic basis thereby giving schools more certainty over their resource levels. This allows for better planning in schools, greater flexibility in identifying and intervening earlier with regard to pupils' special educational needs as well as making the posts more attractive to qualified teachers. In this regard, the circular also advised that schools should allocate teachers in line with pupils' needs in order to ensure that those with the greatest need received the highest level of support. A concern was articulated in the circular that pupils should be supported by the teacher with the most appropriate training, experience and expertise. It was envisaged that teaching resources would be deployed in a flexible manner which would lead to the most effective and efficient delivery of services. To ensure that this model of provision operates effectively and efficiently, a new combined postgraduate diploma programme of continuing professional development was offered to teachers from September 2006.

Some 300 places on this combined postgraduate diploma programme of continuing professional development are offered in the following centres: St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra; Church of Ireland College of Education; St. Angela's College, Sligo; Mary Immaculate College, Limerick; UCD, University College Dublin; Department of Education, University College Cork and, the Department of Education, National University of Ireland, Galway. The budget to cater for the provision of these programmes of professional development in the current year is more than €1.3 million. Those teachers who successfully complete this programme of professional development and who satisfy the other conditions are eligible for payment of an additional allowance.

I am happy to advise the House that officials in the Department are currently engaged in discussions with the seven institutions involved in the delivery of this combined postgraduate programme with a view to developing a further comprehensive programme of continuing professional development. The aim of this new programme of continuing professional development will be to enable those teachers referred to by the Senator to effectively upgrade their current qualifications to meet the learning and teaching needs of all students with special educational needs in our schools. Department officials have been in close contact with these institutions for some time and the Minister is confident that significant progress will be made in the new academic year with a view to having such a programme of continuing professional development in place for the Autumn of 2009. Successful completion of this programme will enable these teachers satisfy the condition for payment of the allowance relating to the holding of a relevant qualification in the area of special educational needs.

I take this opportunity to thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to clarify the position in regard to this matter.