Written answers

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Department of Education and Skills

School Staffing

Photo of Maureen O'SullivanMaureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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765. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 395 of 9 December 2014, if the recommendation is that schools should differentiate between English additional language provision and literacy support provision in order that support is appropriately targeted (details supplied); if she is satisfied that schools have adequate resources, staff and training to deliver this kind of support. [49569/14]

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Teacher allocations are approved annually in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. The criteria for the allocation of posts are communicated to school managements annually and are available on the Department website.In relation to learning/language support there are currently over 4,700 posts allocated to schools at primary level and over 780 posts at post primary level. This includes the standard learning/language support allocation that is given to all schools and the additional support that is provided to schools that have high concentrations of pupils that require language support.

Further additional temporary language support posts are provided on the basis of appeals to the Staffing Appeal Boards. The appeal criteria are set out in the published staffing arrangements.

Schools have autonomy to deploy this resource between language support and learning support depending on the specific needs of the school.

The staffing arrangements for the 2015/16 school year will be published shortly and this will enable schools to determine their staffing levels for that school year.

The Teaching Council's criteria for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) sets out the mandatory elements to be contained in all Initial Teacher Education Programmes. These include Inclusive Education, (Special Education, Multiculturalism, Disadvantage, etc) Literacy, Numeracy and Differentiation. The Council's criteria does not overly prescribe what should be covered in programmes, rather, the approach is that ITE is about the development of critical core skills, which can then be applied to any range of issues in the classroom, possibly with the benefit of further up-skilling post-qualification.

The Professional Development Service for Teachers offer workshops and school support in the area of EAL to primary schools. The purpose of the workshops is to provide key information on EAL to both language support teachers and teachers supporting children with EAL under the general allocation model. At post-primary level, support is made available to schools on request in the area of EAL and work on literacy incorporates aspects of EAL in many cases.

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