Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I am pleased to have the opportunity, provided by Senator O'Reilly, to deal with the matter.

The Senator will be well aware that allocations to schools typically increase or decrease depending on pupil enrolment. In the case of special classes for pupils with a mild general learning disability, the normal pupil-teacher ratio is 11:1. The Department allows for a small reduction in this number and permits schools to retain a teaching post where it has a minimum of nine pupils in the class. The school in question has two special classes and the enrolment totals 14. The minimum enrolment required to retain the second class has therefore not been fulfilled and the school no longer qualifies to retain the second special class.

In the case of 128 classes in 119 schools, the number of pupils dropped below this minimum. These schools therefore are no longer entitled to retain the teaching posts in these classes. All the 119 schools from which the teaching posts are being removed received allocations under the general allocation model of teaching support. These schools therefore have been resourced for the categories of pupils in question.

It is important to note that 3,000 schools that do not have special classes for pupils with mild general learning disability meet the needs of these children through mainstream classes and the use of their general allocation teaching resources. Furthermore, some schools in recent years voluntarily disbanded their mild classes and mainstreamed the pupils, with the associated loss of the mild special class post.

The pupils from the 128 classes will be placed in mainstream classes and will receive support from their class teacher. All of them will benefit from the support available through the schools general allocation model. As I said, the other primary schools in the country that do not have classes for children with mild general learning disability cater for these pupils from within the general allocation model.

As the Minister stated, he is open to listening to proposals from schools in which they 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. I understand that correspondence has been received in the Department from the school in relation to the mild class, and officials will be in direct contact with it shortly in this regard.

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

I take this opportunity to emphasise that priority will continue to be given to provision for children with special educational needs. As I stated, the establishment of these classes for mild general learning disability pre-date many of the developments in special education policy in recent years and we now have a system of providing schools with supports for children with high incidence special needs through the general allocation model.