this new support system for school improvement seeks to build the capacity of schools and school providers for selfimprovement and to make better use of pei and pme to this end it also seeks to establish pme as a tool that is more independent of the sep and related accountability requirements another positive development is that thanks to targeted funding programmes in the form of the sep and the programme of school integration pie schools have additional resources to hire learning support staff that support teachers in their work and provide support for students within schools