Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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68. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will appoint a teacher specifically for the ASD class of a school, (details supplied), in County Donegal; and if he will overturn his Department's decision to reduce the number of GAM hours from 25 to 20; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20712/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) approves special classes for schools. Such a special class was approved for the school referred to by the Deputy in 2011. My Department has arrangements in place whereby a substitute teacher is employed by a school if a teacher, including special class teachers, is absent on certified sick leave as is the position in this case. The criteria for the appointment of an administrative principal to a school, which are enrolment related, are set out in Appendix B of Circular, 0007/2014 Staffing Arrangements in Primary Schools for the 2014/15 school year and is available on the website.

Since September 2012 the combined resources available for learning support (General Allocation Model at Primary) and language support have been merged into a single simplified allocation process. The GAM/EAL arrangements for the 2014/15 school year are set out in Circular 0007/2014 and are based on a school's mainstream classroom posts for the 2013/14 school year and will not be overturned. Appendix C of that circular lists the allocation for all schools. Where schools do not have sufficient GAM/EAL hours to create a full-time post, a process is in place for such schools to enter into cluster arrangements with neighbouring schools. St. Peter's NS will be a base school for a shared GAM/EAL post for the 2014/15 school year.