Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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236. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of a 50% reversal and a full reversal in the cut to resource teaching hours introduced in Budget 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33908/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that on 21st May, 2015, I announced that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) will increase its allocation of Resource Teacher Posts to schools by over 9% for the start of the 2015/16 school year.

The NCSE has allocated 6,454 resource teacher posts to schools for September 2015, an increase of 554 posts - or 9.4% - since September 2014.

Even in the constrained economic circumstances we have faced in recent years, we have been able to continue to meet the needs of children with special

educational needs attending our schools.

This year we have again increased the number of Resource Teachers which will be allocated to schools, keeping pace with both demographic growth and increased

demand.

The NCSE has now published details of the allocations which will be made to each individual school on the NCSE website ncse.ie.

The NCSE is also currently concluding the second round allocation process to respond to late enrolments, or from diagnosed disabilities emerging after the

closing date for the first allocation round, to the start of the new school year.

On publishing details of the allocations for September 2015, the NCSE noted that the number of resource teaching posts which are being allocated to schools

has increased by 22% since September 2013, from 5285 posts at that point to 6,454 posts for September 2015.

It is therefore clear that not only has there not been a reduction in the overall number of resource teaching posts and hours being allocated to schools, but that there has been a very significant increase in the overall allocation to schools in recent years.

The cost of adding an additional 15% to the existing allocation, which in itself represents an increase of 22% in the allocation recent years, would be approximately an additional €71m per year.

The cost of adding an additional 7.5% to the existing allocation would be an additional €35.5m per year, approximately.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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237. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of providing one administration day per week for teaching principals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33909/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Circular 25/02 which is available on the Department website outlines the number of days that teaching principals may take as release time in a school year in order to assist them fulfilling their principal duties. Under these arrangements my Department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching principal. Under the current arrangements the number of days that principal teachers may take as release time in each school year ranges between 14 and 22 days depending on the size of the school.

Improving these arrangements so as to enable teaching principals to have one release day per week would cost of the order of €10 million per annum.

I am aware of the workload issue and the pressures on Principals teachers. My Department has done work at helping to ease the administrative burden on school principals. The development and introduction of the primary online database is a significant step forward in this regard. A further step forward was the publication of Department Circular 0033/2015 which updates and simplifies the manner in which primary schools can maintain pupil enrolment and attendance records following the introduction of the primary online database.

Economic constraints and the moratorium on recruitment albeit alleviated to some extent for schools, have presented challenges within the education sector. They also provide an opportunity to review the role of the principal so that our principals are leaders of learning, and to reconfigure the middle management structure to support principals in their role, ensuring ownership of responsibility rather than tasks, thereby building expertise and supporting a career path within the profession.

The Department, in consultation with the representative management bodies has commenced an exploration of the opportunities to support and thereby advance our understanding of the needs of school leaders and how they might be addressed.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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238. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of restoring the ex-quota guidance counselling to all schools in 2016; the cost of a 50% restoration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33910/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Since September 2012 at post primary level guidance provision is organised by school management from within the staffing schedule allocation. Guidance is a whole school activity and schools have autonomy on how best to prioritise their available resources to meet the requirements in relation to guidance and the provision of an appropriate range of subjects to students.

The budget measure that required schools to manage the provision of guidance from within their standard staffing allocation was introduced as an alternative to an adjustment to the standard staffing schedule. Such an adjustment would be the equivalent of an 0.6 change in the staffing schedule. My Department helped shelter the impact for DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocations so that it is based on a ratio of 18.25:1 compared to the standard 19:1 – an improvement of 0.75 on the standard staffing schedule for these schools.

The net reduction in guidance provision as a consequence of this budget measure was of the order of 500 posts. The annual budget saving from this measure is over €30 million. This gives an indication of the cost involved if this budget measure was not in place. The Department helped shelter the impact for DEIS post-primary schools by improving their standard staffing allocations.

The representative organisations for School Principals and school management developed a framework that assists schools on how best to manage the provision of guidance from within their staffing allocation. This approach puts a greater emphasis on group-work and class-based activity at senior cycle and maximises the amount of time available for those pupils that need one to one support.

I have no plans to return to a situation where there would be a separate allocation for guidance in schools. If economic recovery continues I hope the Government will be in a position to improve the standard staffing allocation to schools. However, I believe that it is desirable to give schools discretion on how to use those increased resources.