Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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872. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on the introduction of a dedicated resource teacher for each junior infant class in mainstream classes in order to help young children transition into primary school level and, in particular, to assist those with English language difficulties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41346/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that all mainstream primary schools have been allocated additional resource teaching and learning support allocations under the General Allocation Model to support children with mild general learning difficulties, learning support needs, or English Additional Language (EAL) support.

The General Allocation Model (GAM) currently allocates over 4,200 Learning Support/Resource Teachers to primary schools, and is now updated annually, based on the number of mainstream teaching posts in schools in the previous school year, reflecting any growth in school size. The criteria by which such resources are allocated to schools under the GAM is set out in my Department's Circular 07/2014.

Schools then have autonomy to deploy their GAM resource allocations to children depending on their specific needs. It is a matter for schools to monitor and utilise their allocation of additional teaching support to best support the needs of identified pupils, including pupils in junior infant classes, in accordance with my Department's guidance.

The teaching time afforded to each individual pupil is therefore decided and managed by schools, taking into account each child's needs.

In addition, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocates additional resource teaching hours to schools for children who have been assessed within the low incidence, or more complex, category of special need, as defined by my Department's Circular Sp Ed 02/05. 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 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.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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873. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is a correlation between the STen results of a school and the level of resources provided by her Department; if schools with higher STen results receive less resource funding; the way schools are being incentivised to increase their STen results; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41347/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that Resource Teaching and Learning Support resources are currently allocated to schools in accordance with the criteria outlined in my Department's Circulars 07/2014 and 02/05. The current allocation system does not presently take into account standardised test results, or Sten results, of schools, in allocating resources to schools to support children with special educational needs.

I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) published a Report on a Proposed New Model for Allocating Teachers for Students with Special Educational Needs on 18th June 2014.

The NCSE, consulted widely with education partners, representatives of the disability sector, stakeholders and parent representative groups, during the course of the development of this policy advice.

The report recommends that a new allocation model should be developed, based on a schools educational profile, while providing a baseline allocation to every mainstream school to support inclusion.

The report recommends that in developing educational profile of a school that account would be taken of: The number of students with complex special educational needs in a school; Percentages of students performing below a certain threshold on standardised test results; Social context of school which includes gender, primary school location and educational disadvantage.

My Department is currently collecting information which will be required to develop the proposed new model. Following consideration of this data, my Department will also consider whether, and from what date a new model might be implemented.

I also wish to advise the Deputy that following publication of the working group report, my Department invited education partners, stakeholders, and parent representative groups to make written submissions in relation to the NCSE report. 27 written submissions have been received to date, from interested parties.

My Department also held a number of consultation meetings on 1st and 3rd October last with stakeholders, education partners, and parent representative groups.

Consultation has been a key feature of the development of this policy advice to date and I can confirm that consultation will continue to take place at each stage of the development of proposals for any new model.