Special needs pupils to lose teaching support [Irish Examiner]
- Published: 11 February 2009
Source: Irish Examiner
More than 500 special needs pupils will no longer receive dedicated teaching support as the Government tightens rules on staffing levels, it emerged today.
Some 128 classes set up to help youngsters with mild learning disabilities are being axed as the Department of Education limits the extra teaching time to a nine-to-one pupil-teacher ratio.
Eighty disadvantaged schools will be hit by the cutbacks.
John Carr, Irish National Teachers Organisation general secretary, said the decision was indefensible and called for it to be immediately reversed.
"On a day when €8bn is being provided to bail out banks the Education Department is axing €7m in funding to special needs children," he said.
"The decision was made purely on financial grounds. It is certainly not being made on educational grounds."
The INTO called for the cutbacks plan to be immediately reversed until the National Council for Special Education publishes a report on the special classes.
In all, 119 schools are affected by the cuts and 534 pupils will lose their special needs support.
The Department of Education said 17 of the disadvantaged schools will open a permanent teaching post to deal with bigger mainstream class sizes.
Brian Hayes, Fine Gael education spokesman, said the move will pile pressure on mainstream teachers and inhibit the right to a decent education.
"Attacking the most vulnerable in our education system represents a new low even for this minister," he said.
Kathleen Lynch, Labour spokeswoman on equality, said that the cuts were an attack on vulnerable children.
"This decision means that not only will these children themselves suffer, but so too will their classmates, as a further burden will be placed on the mainstream teachers who are already under huge pressure," she said.
The special classes were created for youngsters with conditions and disabilities which makes learning difficult and education bosses have in effect turned a blind-eye when extra staff were hired above the nine-to-one pupil teacher ratio.
But the Department of Education said due to tightened budgets 119 principals have been informed the number of special needs pupils falls below the minimum of nine required for each class.
A spokesman for Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe insisted the cutbacks were simply a tightening of existing rules on staff numbers.
"All national schools receive additional teaching support to enable them to meet the needs of pupils with high incidence special needs such as a mild general learning disability," the minister spokesman said.
The cuts mean the 534 pupils who need extra help will be taught in mainstream classes and by resource teachers.
The Labour Party said they supported teaching special needs children in mainstream schools.
But Ms Lynch warned: "The trend in recent years has been to accommodate children with learning disabilities in mainstream schools, with much of the old 'special school' infrastructure being dismantled.
"But if the replacement infrastructure in mainstream schools is itself now being dismantled, that means that these children are being left high and dry."
