Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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508. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the details of improvements relating to guidance counselling in secondary schools, as announced in budget 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42571/15]

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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509. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if guidance and special education needs positions in secondary schools will be classified as ex quota, given the impact that the current classification has on them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42572/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 508 and 509 together.

The Deputy will be aware that I have made provision in Budget 2016 for some 2,260 additional teaching posts for our primary and post primary schools next year. This includes the allocation of a whole time equivalent of an additional 300 teachers to second level schools and brings the basis of allocation from 19:1 to 18.7:1 for the school year 2016/17. This improvement of 0.3 in PTR allocation is a restoration of 50% of the teaching resources that were removed when the allocation of guidance posts was brought within quota. The delivery of the 50% restoration through a change in the PTR allocation will allow each school to determine how best to allocate the additional resources to meet the guidance needs of the school.

I have no plans to return to a situation where there would be a separate allocation for guidance in schools. The Department's Guidelines in relation to how Guidance should operate within schools will be updated for the next school year to reflect the change in the allocation process. The Guidelines will underpin the responsibility of every school to make sure that they use this additional staffing to meet their obligations to provide guidance counselling support to all students. When the allocation for guidance was brought within quota DEIS schools were protected from the change by providing for a 18.25:1 allocation compared to the general 19:1 allocation. The position of DEIS schools will be further enhanced by a change to an allocation on the basis of 17.95:1.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

The NCSE has recommended that a new model be developed for allocating resource teachers to schools. My Department has devised a pilot of the new model which is taking place in a number of schools during the 2015/16 school year. In taking the decision to conduct a pilot of the new model, I have been guided by the advice of the NCSE Working Group report, which recommended sufficient time be allowed for consultation before the new model is implemented. I therefore do not propose to amend the existing allocation process, pending the completion of the pilot project and the introduction of a new allocation model.