Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason the resource teacher assigned to a school (details supplied) in County Cork is being moved; and if this resource teacher will be allowed to continue working with the children they have been working with in this school. [18937/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, my Department has issued a letter to all primary schools notifying them of their resource teaching allocation under the new general allocation scheme for the 2005-06 school year. The school referred to by the Deputy has been notified that it has a general allocation of 12.5 hours, based on an enrolment of 49 pupils. The letter also included details of the arrangement under which the school will be clustered with another school to enable the creation of a full-time post, rather than just hiring different part-time teachers for both schools.

Clustering facilitates the assignment of experienced teachers as well as allowing for better training of resource teachers on the basis that permanent posts will retain teachers for longer periods. This ultimately benefits the pupils. In this regard, the school in question has been clustered with one other school in the area.

The school was previously in a clustering arrangement with four other schools. As a result of the allocation of additional resources to schools in the cluster it was necessary to revise the clustering arrangements. The revised clustering arrangement means that the school will no longer be clustered with the previous base school. It is a matter for the board of management of the new base school to determine the teacher who will fill the general allocation post to service the revised cluster.

The posts being provided under the new general allocation scheme are designed to ensure that each school has enough resource teaching hours to meet the needs of children with high incidence special needs, such as dyslexia and children with learning support needs. Resource teaching hours for children with low incidence special needs, such as autism, will continue to be provided on the basis of an individual application for each child.

As regards whether pupils in the school with high incidence special needs and learning support needs will receive support from the resource teacher, it is important to note that this is a decision to be made at school level. Each school will have enough resource teaching hours to provide its pupils with a level of support appropriate to their needs. The school can then use its professional judgment to decide how these hours are divided between different children in the school to ensure that all their needs are met.

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 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 giving one-to-one time with the resource teacher to children that 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 over 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. Indeed, one out of every five primary school teachers is now working specifically with children with special needs.

The Government, and I as Minister for Education and Science, are 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.

Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 59: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the arrangements for the clustering of schools for special needs support; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19751/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, my Department has issued a letter to all primary schools notifying them of their teaching allocation under the new general allocation model for the 2005-06 school year. The letter also includes details of any clustering arrangements that may apply.

One of the objectives of the general allocation model is to maximise the extent of full-time permanent posts available to support the needs of pupils with higher incidence special educational needs, SEN, and learning support teacher requirements. Clustering facilitates the assignment of experienced teachers as well as allowing for better training of resource teachers on the basis that permanent posts will retain teachers for longer periods. This ultimately benefits the pupils. To this end, schools, particularly those with small enrolments, have been grouped in clusters where possible.

Part-time hours have been provided to schools in cases where it was not possible to form a cluster of general allocation hours. Schools that have been allocated part-time permanent hours may be aware of other local schools with part-time permanent hours that, when combined, could form a full-time permanent post. It is open to any such schools wishing to form a cluster by combining these hours to contact my Department's special education section in writing with details of their proposal. It should be noted that these arrangements apply to staffing associated with the general allocation model only.

Where it is not possible for schools to form permanent posts under the general allocation model, such schools may, for the purposes of creating temporary full-time posts, form clusters to combine permanent part-time hours allocated under the general allocation model with hours allocated for individual children with low incidence disabilities or transitional hours retained for children with high incidence disabilities. Again, any schools wishing to form such temporary full-time posts should contact my Department's special education section in writing with details of their proposal. This arrangement will apply for the 2005-06 school year only and is being facilitated on the understanding that, as pupils with an individual allocation of hours leave the school at the end of that school year, the full-time temporary posts will be adjusted to the appropriate reduced level of part-time hours.

My Department is also finalising a circular for schools which will contain detailed information on how the new system will operate. It is intended that this circular will issue before the end of the current school year. It is also intended that this circular will address issues that have been raised by schools with my Department since the system was notified to schools in mid-May.