Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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Question 196: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will reverse the loss of eight teaching posts, approximately one third of staff, at a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary in view of the consequences for the education of pupils at the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13881/12]

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 205: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will clarify whether a school (details supplied) is to lose eight teaching staff posts at the start of the new school year. [14063/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 196 and 205 together.

The staffing arrangements for the 2012/13 school year are set out in Primary Circular 0007/2012, which is available on my Department's website. This includes the detail of the reform of the allocation process which is designed to bring a more equitable distribution of existing posts between schools. The new arrangements incorporate a long overdue updating of the GAM (learning support) allocation for all schools. This inevitably involves changes to existing clustering arrangements whereby a teacher is shared between schools. A further change is that schools in any locality are being empowered to cluster and arrange their GAM resources in a manner that best suits their local needs. This should be completed by schools by 16 March.

There are also new and separate arrangements for how resource hours for individual pupils are converted into teaching posts in schools. The requirement for resource hours in a school varies from year to year depending on the number, if any, of its pupils with autism etc. Small schools generally have a lower requirement for resource hours. The new arrangements take account of the later timescale for the allocation of these hours necessitated by individual assessment by the NCSE. All of the changes are designed to enable a more efficient operation of the teacher allocation and redeployment process in the new climate of a fixed ceiling of teacher numbers.

The Deputies will be aware that Budget 2012 provided for the phased withdrawal of approximately 428 posts allocated to some schools under disadvantage programmes prior to the introduction of the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) Initiative in 2005. As already announced the withdrawal of 192 posts from primary schools outside DEIS Band 1 and 2 and from DEIS second level schools will proceed, including the 38 posts from 15 Non DEIS schools, which includes the school referred to by the Deputies.

The staffing circular 0007/2012 also includes an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Appeal Board. The existing staffing appeals criteria have been extended to enable limited phasing arrangements for schools where the combination of budget and reform measures impact on a particularly adverse manner on a school's overall allocation. Schools such as the school referred to by the Deputies that are due to lose 3 or more posts as a result of a combination of the budget and reform measures will be able to apply to the Staffing Appeals Board with a view to seeking to have a portion of the loss in posts deferred to the 2013/14 school year. The closing date for submission of appeals for the April meeting of the Staffing Appeal Board is 23 March, 2012. Schools must submit to my Department by 16 March, 2012 a redeployment form for any teacher surplus to requirements who is eligible to be placed on the redeployment panel. It is intended that the Appeal Board meeting will take place on Wednesday 18 April, 2012 which will be prior to the release of the main redeployment panel and allow for any impact of the Board's decision on redeployment panels to be effected.

The Appeal Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final. The final staffing position for all schools will ultimately not be known until later in 2012. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed and any appeals to the Staffing Appeal Board will have been considered.