Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 64: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason that he will only review the impacts of the legacy posts due to be removed from DEIS Band 1 and DEIS Band 2 schools as announced in budget 2012 and the reason this review did not look at rural DEIS schools or DEIS post-primary schools. [13197/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Due to conflicting numbers of posts being reported as potentially lost to DEIS Band 1 and Band 2 urban primary schools it was necessary to obtain clarity with regard to the net effect of a range of factors on teacher allocations in these schools; for example, increasing and decreasing enrolments, the reforms to the existing teacher allocations process and up to date enrolments, all of which contribute to determining the staffing requirement for these schools for 2012/13 school year. The Report on the net impact, in terms of posts, of Budget measures on these DEIS Band 1 and Band 2 urban primary schools, that still had additional posts allocated under disadvantage schemes pre-dating DEIS, was published on 21 February 2012.

Of the 328 DEIS Rural primary schools, 16 of these schools with legacy posts will lose one teaching post each. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of DEIS Rural Primary Schools have not been affected by this decision. Of the 195 post primary DEIS schools, 163 of these schools will lose 136 posts. However, all DEIS post-primary schools will be targeted for additional support through an improved staffing schedule of 18.25:1 This is a 0.75 point improvement compared to the existing standard 19:1 that applies in post-primary schools that do not charge fees (or compared to the 21:1 ratio that will apply in fee-charging schools).