Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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919. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the fact that her Department discriminates against girls who attend an all girls primary school, in view of the fact that an all girls primary school receives four hours learning support per mainstream teacher, and an all boys primary school and mixed primary schools receive five hours learning support per mainstream teacher; her views that this is fair and just in view of the fact that there is no directive in a mixed school to ensure that a higher proportion of learning support must be provided to boys, in view of the fact that the rationale for the different levels of learning support provided by the Department of Education and Skills is that boys exhibit a higher incidence of learning difficulties than girls; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21573/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that differing teacher allocation ratios are applied under the General Allocation Model (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 targeted 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 has published a report 'A study of the Prevalence of Special Educational Needs' which is available at www.ncse.ie and which contains details regarding the prevalence of special needs among the pupil population including noting gender differentials.

The recently published NCSE Report Delivery for Students with Special Educational Needs, which is also available at www.ncse.ie, recommended that a new resource teaching allocation model be devised for schools taking into account the profiled need of schools and the educational profile of a school.

In doing so, the NCSE report recommended that gender should continue to be a factor in deciding on school profile for resource allocation purposes.

Through consultations, there was a broad welcome for the proposed new model from Parents, disability groups, schools and stakeholders. However, there has not been sufficient time to address all of the concerns which have been raised in advance of the 2015 school year.

My Department is, however, continuing to develop the new allocation model for schools and is currently working to devise a pilot of the new model. In developing the new allocation model for schools, my Department will take account of the recommendations of the NCSE policy advice in relation to the inclusion of gender in deciding on school profiles for resource allocation purposes.