Written answers

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Department of Education and Science

School Staffing

10:00 pm

Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 220: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of teachers teaching the English language as a foreign language in second level schools, community and comprehensive colleges and VEC schools. [45666/08]

Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 221: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of second level schools, community and comprehensive colleges and VEC schools with one of more teachers who teach the English language as a foreign language. [45667/08]

Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 222: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of second level schools, community and comprehensive colleges and VEC schools with an excess of two teachers teaching English as a foreign language. [45668/08]

Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 223: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the second level schools, community and comprehensive colleges and VEC schools with one or more teachers teaching the English language as a foreign language; the number of such teachers in the case of each school. [45669/08]

Photo of Batt O'KeeffeBatt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 220 to 223, inclusive, together.

Language support teachers are appointed to assist schools in providing additional English language support for pupils for whom English is a second language.

There are currently 554 Language Support Teachers allocated to post- primary schools, at a current cost of approximately €35 million per annum. The number of teaching posts in each second-level sector is broken down as follows: 288 in voluntary secondary, 88 in community and comprehensive and 178 in VEC schools.

The table gives a breakdown of the number of Whole Time Equivalents (WTE) currently allocated to second-level schools.

The budget measures announced recently will mean that the level of language support will be reduced from a maximum of six extra teachers per school to a maximum of two teachers per school, as was the case before 2007.

As I announced on budget day we will provide for some alleviation for the position of those schools where there is a significant concentration of newcomer pupils as a proportion of the overall enrolment. This will be done on a case by case basis.

At this time the priority for my Department within the resources available to it is to carry out the allocation process for 2009/10 in a timely manner. Diverting resources in order to create staffing profiles for individual schools or list of schools could not be justified and would actually impede this process.

Moreover, OECD research in this field (PISA 2006) shows that Ireland is the OECD country with the highest distribution of newcomers across schools meaning that schools with higher concentrations of newcomer children are relatively unusual. ESRI data also shows that only a small percentage of schools have high concentrations of newcomer children.

I realise that standards are not simply achieved by supplying teaching resources and that the quality of the supports that the child receives and the inclusive atmosphere cultivated in schools are important factors influencing the quality of learning achieved by migrant children. My Department recognises that we must monitor and review the educational experiences that are provided to migrant students so that we can improve the quality and effectiveness of our provision. The Department is undertaking a range of research to consider the question of integration in schools and how best to deploy our resources to ensure that all the children in our schools can benefit from learning in an intercultural Ireland.

My Department is providing support and training for teachers of English as an additional language in the current school year. At post primary level, the Second Level Support Service (SLSS) have identified members of their team to provide training and support for teachers of English as an additional language. The training has been designed and will be rolled out in early 2009. The table gives a breakdown of the number of Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) currently allocated to second-level schools:

WTENo of schools
Between 0.1-1310
1-2100
2-341
3-424
4-614

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