Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 1434: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the way in which continuity in home tutoring will be maintained following changes in criteria she made in recent months. [30115/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The home tuition scheme provides funding to parents to provide education at home for children who, for a variety of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for pupils awaiting a suitable educational placement.

As the tuition takes place outside of the school supervision, the Deputy will appreciate the need to ensure that tuition providers are appropriately qualified to give education to the children concerned. The usual requirement is a fully qualified teacher. However other qualifications are acceptable depending on the individual needs of the child.

Nominated tuition providers with qualifications other than teaching qualifications have been accepted for the first school term this year to allow time to establish the suitability of the range of qualifications submitted. As the process progresses the parents concerned will be informed of the decision which will result in approval for subsequent terms of the nominated tuition provider or direction to recruit a tuition provider with suitable qualifications. It is important to stress that the allocation of tuition hours under the scheme is not at issue in the context of the review of qualifications in this regard.