Resource teacher hires limited to 21 until June
Despite a Department of Education increase this year to the limit on resource teacher numbers — by 480 to 6,225 — the total now allocated to schools has passed 6,200.
The National Council for Special Education yesterday notified hundreds of schools of the allocation of resource teaching hours adding up to a total of 302 full-time posts, in addition to the 5,902 posts allocated before the summer holidays on foot of earlier applications. Although the total is 15% more than two years ago, the 939 extra resource teacher posts in the system in that time are only enough to keep pace with rising demand, in line with overall pupil number increases.
