David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Education and Science, further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 504 and 505 of 17 October 2006, if she will provide details of the number of home tuition grants applied for, approved and drawn down each year respectively since 2000; the details of changes made to the home tuition scheme operated by her Department, in particular the changes she has made with regard to accepted qualifications of personnel providing home tuition hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5062/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The information regarding the number of home tuition grants applied for, approved and drawn down each year since 2000 to date in 2006 is not readily available in my Department. However, officials in my Department have recently revised its record keeping arrangements and this information will be available in due course for the 2006/2007 school year.

The home tuition scheme provides funding to parents to provide education at home for children who, for a number of reasons such as chronic illness, are unable to attend school. The scheme was extended in recent years to facilitate tuition for children awaiting a suitable educational placement and also to provide early educational intervention for pre-school children with autism. The Deputy will appreciate that, as home tuition takes place outside of the normal school framework, there is need to ensure that tuition providers are appropriately qualified to give education to the children concerned. The usual requirement is for a fully qualified teacher.

A recent review of a number of applications for home tuition highlighted some cause for concern regarding the qualifications of proposed tuition providers. Parents/guardians who had nominated tuition providers with qualifications other than teaching qualifications were advised that these tuition providers were being accepted for the first school term, from September to December 2006, to allow time to undertake the review. A review of the qualifications supplied has taken place in consultation with my Department's Inspectorate, resulting in an extended list of qualifications acceptable under the scheme for children with autism. My officials will send details of these qualifications to the Deputy.

As necessary, my Department wrote to the parents/guardians concerned to advise the outcome of the review. In some cases, where tuition providers' qualifications were acceptable, letters of sanction issued to the end of the school year. In other cases, where the tuition providers' qualifications did not meet the minimum requirements, the applicants were advised of the need to recruit a tuition provider with suitable qualifications. However my Department built flexibility into this arrangement to accommodate parents/guardians who were experiencing difficulties in changing to a qualified tuition provider by extending the sanction with the current tuition provider until the end of the school year 2006/07 to facilitate the recruitment process.

It is in the interests of children to expect that home tutors funded under this scheme are appropriately qualified tuition providers. It is for this reason that tuition providers will be required to meet the minimum qualification standard for the 2007/2008 school year.