Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 494: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of home-school community liaison teachers employed full-time and part-time by his Department; and their role in the educational system. [25867/08]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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At present, a total of 450 local Home, School, Community Liaison (HSCL) co-ordinators provide HSCL services to 691 schools (370 Primary and 281 Post-Primary) throughout Ireland. This number includes 80 posts which were provided in 2006 to extend HSCL services to all schools selected for inclusion in DEIS, the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion, that did not have such services. My predecessor, Deputy Hanafin, also extended a commitment to schools not selected to participate in DEIS but already in the HSCL scheme, to continue to support these schools in their efforts to deal with educational disadvantage among their students in line with both their size and level of disadvantage. The HSCL scheme is a major mainstream preventative strategy targeted at pupils at risk of not reaching their potential in the educational system because of background characteristics which tend to affect adversely pupil attainment and school retention. The scheme is concerned with establishing partnership and collaboration between parents and teachers in the interests of children's learning. It focuses directly on the salient adults in children's educational lives and seeks indirect benefits for the children themselves.

Local HSCL co-ordinator posts are provided on a full-time or shared basis between schools and must be deployed to do full-time liaison duties. For the first time, posts are shared across the two sectors — primary and post-primary — to facilitate local HSCL co-ordinators working with the families of disadvantaged children. The local HSCL co-ordinator addresses the development of the parent-teacher relationship in collaboration with the local community in order to enhance the nurturing of the whole child. This implies noting personal and leisure needs as well as the curricular and learning needs of parents so as to promote their self-worth and self-confidence. The scheme also promotes the development of staff and teacher attitudes and behaviour so that the school becomes a place where all young people can reach their potential. Local HSCL co-ordinators focus on adults, including parents, guardians and teachers, not on children. The outcomes should positively impact over time on children's lives. HSCL initiatives are concerned with promoting parents' education, development, growth and involvement; the participation of parents in their children's education including homework support; providing a parents' room and child care facilities for parents who attend programmes in the school; and developing principal and teacher attitudes towards partnership and a whole-school approach — parents and teachers are encouraged to collaborate in sharing their complementary skills, experiences and knowledge. My Department has undertaken a full review of HSCL allocations and clustering arrangements in all schools participating in the scheme to ensure that all schools have a level of service which is commensurate with both the size of the school as well as its relative level of disadvantage. Any modifications to the scheme arising from this review will be notified to schools by the end of August and will take effect from 1 September 2008.