Written answers

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs Staffing

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reasons that girls who attend an all girls school will receive four hours learning support instead of five hours as afforded to all boys and mixed schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36964/12]

Photo of Ruairi QuinnRuairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I understand the Deputy is referring to the General Allocation Model (GAM) of additional teaching supports which are allocated to all Primary schools to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs. As I previously advised the Deputy, in response to his Parliamentary Questions of 25th January, 2012 and 19th July, 2012, differing pupil teacher ratios are applied under the GAM in relation to boys, girls and mixed schools in order to account for differentials of prevalence of learning difficulty between boys and girls. The rationale for the differing ratios is based on international literature on the incidence of disability as well as international and national surveys of literacy and numeracy which indicate that there is a greater incidence of disability/learning difficulty in boys than girls.


The NCSE Report on the Implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, of 2006, also examined a range of sources to establish prevalence rates, including national databases, local and international studies and expert estimates, which indicated significantly higher rates of Mild General Learning Difficulty and Specific Learning Disability prevailing in boys, in comparison to girls. Revised arrangements to update schools' GAM allocations with effect from September 2012, based on the number of class teaching posts in schools for the previous year, reflect the previous arrangements for the allocation of supports under the GAM, which also provided for differentials in allocation between boys and girls schools. The criteria for the allocation of GAM hours are outlined in circular 007/2012 which is available on www.education.ie.

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