Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 May 2024
50. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Education the actions she is taking to allay the concerns expressed by organisations (details supplied) regarding the circular recently issued by her Department relating to the SET allocation for each school from the 2024-2025 school year until further notice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23871/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI want to thank the Deputy for raising this issue.
The Special Education teaching allocation model for 2024/25 distributes the total available number of SET posts in line with each school’s profile of need.
It seeks to distribute teaching resources in the fairest possible manner, taking into account quality, robust evidence in respect of individual schools.
This ensures that resources are in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of children in mainstream.
There will more Special Education Teachers in our schools in September 2024 than ever before – an increase of 1,000 from 2020/21 school year. This is in addition to a significant reduction in class teachers sizes at primary level over three budgets to where our Pupil to Teacher Ratio at primary level is now 23:1.
This means, more than ever, children with SEN in our mainstream schools are best supported to meet their needs.
In addition the model will now be run annually in line with general teacher allocations. This allows schools to better plan their staffing structures and gives them time to arrange clusters in areas where schools share an SET teacher.
There has been a limited change to the method used to allocate SET to mainstream classes. This review involved extensive consultation and visits to schools by the NCSE to look at the strengths and shortcomings of the allocation model. The feedback has been incorporated into the revised model for 2024/25.
The review of the SET model focused on ensuring that we had the best possible data available to inform the distribution of resources to our schools.
Our policy relating to supporting all of our children in our schools based on their level of need remains.
The policy that individual schools are required to adhere to is the principle that the allocation is utilised to ensure that those pupils with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of support and this remains unchanged.
Therefore the revised profiles are directly correlated to, and focused on, pupils with the greatest level of need.
The Department acknowledges that every school is different, and that schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in any standardised method. This is always a challenge when making allocations in respect of 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that the Department, working with the NCSE has streamlined the review process for special education teaching hours and schools who have any concerns can engage with the NCSE on their allocation.
Additional resources will be provided to schools in cases where the NCSE have identified that this is required.
It is important to note that SET hours are only one component of support for children in mainstream but the most important support is the mainstream class teacher. The pupil teacher ratio at primary level is now 23:1 which means there are more mainstream teachers than ever before in our educational system.
The circulars have been publicly supported by the National Parents Council and bodies representing principals at both primary and post primary.
Since the publication of the allocations for 2024/25, officials in my department have undertaken very considerable briefings with the organisations that you have mentioned to address their concerns.
A full day in person briefing session took place on Monday the 4th March with the organisations mentioned, the National Parents Council and Senior officials from my Department, NSCE and NEPS.
This briefing provided an opportunity for the organisation to raise their concerns and to allow the departments Senior Official to respond to and clarify any misperceptions. Following the meeting the department provided the organisations with written responses including presentations on the changes.
Department officials have been in communications with the organisations in recent weeks in relation to work that is ongoing on updating the guidelines for schools on the deployment and usage of the Special Education Teachers resources allocated.
The organisations feedback was received earlier this week and is being reviewed by the working group at present.
In addition, the Department meet with, and consult with these groups on a regular basis on a range of issues, either pertinent to their own members or regarding national policy.
