John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 437: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his plans in place to reduce the teaching staffing levels at a school (details supplied) in County Roscommon; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20097/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The 2009 Budget required difficult choices to be made across all areas of public expenditure. Decisions were made in order to control expenditure and to ensure sustainability in the long term. In this respect my Department, while protected to a much greater extent than most other areas of public expenditure, could not be entirely spared, and I acknowledge the impact of funding restrictions in a number of areas, including at school level. However, these are the inevitable result of the challenging economic environment and the need to manage Exchequer resources prudently. These decisions included the withdrawal of teaching posts which have been historically provided under previous disadvantage schemes to non-DEIS schools and the increasing of the pupil teacher ratio across all second-level schools from 18:1 to 19:1. In the case of fee-charging post-primary schools, there will be an additional one-point adjustment to 20:1.

Teacher allocations to all VEC schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. In accordance with these rules each VEC is required to organise its subject options within the limit of its approved teacher allocation. The deployment of teaching staff, the range of subjects offered and ultimately the quality of teaching and learning are in the first instance a matter for the VEC's.

In accordance with existing arrangements, where a school management authority is unable to meet its curricular commitments within its approved allocation, my Department considers applications for additional short term support i.e. curricular concessions. This concession is available as a short term support to enable essential curricular provision to continue. An application for curricular concessions was received in my Department from the VEC concerned. The VEC has been notified of the outcome.

The allocation processes also include appellate mechanisms under which VEC's can appeal against the allocation due to them under the staffing schedules. The CEO of a VEC can submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Appeal Board which was established specifically to adjudicate on appeals on staffing allocations in post-primary schools. This Board operates independently of my Department. Discrete allocations are also made to VEC schools to cater for pupils with Special Educational Needs and those with Language difficulties for example.