Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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226. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason, according to circular 07/2012, five years per week learning support is offered to pupils in all-boys mainstream classrooms while only four hours per week is offered to pupils attending all-girls mainstream classroom; his views on whether it is fair that a differentiation should be made between boys and girls; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33390/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I understand the Deputy is referring to resources allocated to schools under 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. I wish to advise the Deputy that 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 objective of this differentiation is to ensure that resources provided to schools to support children who have additional learning needs are targetted to ensure that those children most in need benefit from these resources.

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. The criteria for the allocation of GAM hours is outlined in circular 13/2013 which is available on my Department's website www.education.ie.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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228. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide assurances that pupils with special needs, assessed late in the academic year as requiring resource hours or a special needs assistant, will have the necessary allocations granted at the commencement of the new academic year; if these allocations cannot be granted, the reason for this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33392/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including the allocation of resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of Special Education supports and the staffing resources available to my Department. All schools were advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2013/14 school year by 15th March 2013. The NCSE has now published details of all of their allocations for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2013/2014 school year. These details are now available on the NCSE website, www.ncse.ie, and detail the allocations made for each school on a per county basis.

In relation to SNA support, schools should contact the NCSE if they have enrolled children who were not considered at the time that these allocations were made, or where they are seeking a revision to the quantum of SNA support which has been allocated to them for the coming school year. In general a revision to SNA allocations will only be made in circumstances where schools have enrolled new pupils, or where schools can demonstrate that they do not have sufficient SNA posts to cater for the care needs of all of the qualifying children in their school. In relation to resource teaching support, I am committed to ensuring that the resources which will be required to ensure that the allocations can be made to schools at existing levels will be provided, including resources required to meet any late demand expected to arise between now and the start of the school year. I have requested the NCSE to advise me by the end of September on the level of additional demand arising from late or emergency applications for the remainder of the school year. All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.