Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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418. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children eligible for July provision in Cork; the number of applications received by her Department to date for children who have a tutor and the number of tutors registered with her Department for the programme. [37766/21]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In May 2021 the Government announced expanded summer education programmes for pupils with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage, as a Covid-19 pandemic response measure, for summer 2021.

Under this expansion of the summer programme, students with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage will have access to an enhanced summer programme of education. The total funding available to provide the programme is up to €40 million, a one hundred per cent increase on the allocation for summer provision in 2020.

For the first time ever, all schools (primary and-post primary) are encouraged to provide summer programmes and the eligibility criteria have been extended to include post-primary children with complex needs and children at risk of educational disadvantage. Prior to this expansion summer programmes were only available to special schools and pupils in special classes in primary schools and in DEIS schools.

Based on the figures provided in these indications, a total of over 34,000 students could benefit from school-based programmes in 2021 nationally. This would be an increase of 161 per cent on actual take up in 2020.

Details of this breakdown are in the table below:

However, figures on actual participation for the school-based programme, including for pupils in Cork, will only become known when claim forms are received and processed over the summer period.

Similarly it will not be possible to provide figures for the number of applications for the home based summer scheme until the completed forms from the parents to confirm the programme has happened have been received and processed. As the home based programme can run throughout the summer the final forms may not be received until the closing date of 03 September 2021. The Department will have details on the numbers who participate in the home based scheme in late October/early November. The Department has received and is processing 13,800 applications for the supplementary programme which was put in place in February, and expects there will be continued demand for the home-based summer programme.

Under the home-based programme grant funding is made available so that parents/legal guardians can engage the services of a Teacher or an SNA to provide tuition or care support as appropriate in the child’s home in a private arrangement. Schools have been requested to assist parents in trying to source a teacher/SNA who meets the scheme criteria. This can be a member of the school staff or another teacher or SNA known to the school.

Where this is not possible, parents must source a teacher/SNA from outside of their school.

The Teaching Council and Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) have been promoting the summer programme with this year’s graduate teachers and Professional Masters of Education (PME) students to increase the supply of available teachers this summer.  The NCSE has also published information to assist parents in sourcing a teacher/SNA.