Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I will take this Adjournment debate matter on behalf of my colleague the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe.

I thank the Senator for raising this issue as it gives me an opportunity to clarify the position. It is of tremendous concern to me and to the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, that there has been a staggering level of misinformation and misrepresentation of the notification to a number of schools by my Department that they were no longer entitled to retain teachers in classes for pupils with mild general learning disability.

The first and most important point is that all pupils with a mild general learning disability have, and will continue to have, additional teaching resources to support their education. All primary schools have been allocated additional teaching resources to enable them support pupils with high incidence special educational needs including mild general learning disability. Each school was given these additional teaching resources under the general allocation model of learning support-resource teaching introduced in 2005.

I emphasise that these additional teaching resources have not been withdrawn from any school. Schools can decide how best to use this allocation based on the needs of the pupils. Most pupils with a mild general learning disability are included in ordinary classes with their peers and are supported by their class teacher. The curriculum is flexible so that teachers can cater for the needs of pupils of different abilities. This policy of inclusion has widespread support within the educational community. Schools can use their resource-learning support allocation to give pupils special help if they need it. This might be done with a teacher working with a group of pupils or on a one-to-one basis for a few hours each week.

Before the general allocation model was introduced, some schools grouped pupils with a mild general learning disability into special classes. Senators are aware that allocations to schools typically increase or decrease depending on pupil enrolment. In the case of classes for mild general learning disability the normal pupil teacher ratio is 11:1. My Department, however, allows for a small reduction in this number and permits a school to retain a teaching post where it has a minimum of nine pupils in the class. The rules also provide that a teacher would no longer be allocated where the number of pupils fell below nine. In the schools in question, the number of pupils dropped below this minimum and the schools no longer qualify for the teaching posts in these classes.

In 2005 when the general allocation model was introduced, schools with additional teachers in classes for mild general learning disability were allowed to retain the teachers for these classes. Effectively, these schools received a double allocation. The number of these special classes has decreased over the years and schools have integrated the pupils into age-appropriate mainstream classes. All the other primary schools in the country which do not have classes for pupils with mild general learning disability cater for these pupils from within the general allocation model. Surely commentators are not suggesting that three or four pupils with a mild general learning disability should be kept in a class of their own when they could benefit from the interaction of other peers with support from their teacher.

Senator Ross will be aware, however, that the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, is open to listening to proposals from schools where they can demonstrate that it is educationally more beneficial for the pupils involved to be in a special class of their own rather than to be integrated with their peers and supported by the mainstream classroom teacher and the learning resource teacher.

There has been unprecedented investment in providing supports for pupils with special needs in recent years. There are approximately 19,000 adults in our schools working solely with pupils with special needs. There are more than 8,000 resource and learning support teachers in our schools compared with just 2,000 in 1998. In excess of 1,000 other teachers support pupils in our special schools. Some 76 classes for pupils with mild general learning disability are being retained where there are nine pupils or more in these classes.

Priority will continue to be given to provision for pupils with special educational needs. The establishment of mild general learning disability classes predate many of the developments in special education policy in recent years and we now have a system for providing schools with supports for pupils with high incidence special needs through the general allocation model. The parents of all children with mild general learning disability need to know their children in mainstream classes are getting a quality education delivered by committed class teachers and supplemented by additional support from the resource-learning support teacher. This is happening every day in schools throughout the country and it will continue happening. I again thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to clarify the position in relation to this matter.