Lessons in hardship at your local school [IrishTimes]
- Published: 22 March 2011
The cap on the number of special needs assistants is every parent’s concern, writes SHEILA WAYMAN
IT IS the time of year when parents are getting good – or bad – news about where their child is starting primary school in September. Once a place is confirmed, thoughts turn to buying the uniform, the books, the bag and the lunch-box.
But for parents of children with special needs, there are more serious matters to worry about. One of these is the effect a cap on the number of special needs assistants (SNAs), introduced last December, is going to have in the new school year.
Fellow parents, while sympathetic, may be just grateful it is not their concern. But it is.
Aside from the moral and legal imperatives of inclusive education, if children with special needs are not supported sufficiently in mainstream schools, the detrimental effects are felt by all the other pupils. Through no fault of their own, children with special needs may be disruptive or take up an inordinate amount of a teacher’s time if there is not a “shadow” there to assist and restrain where required.
As part of the National Recovery Programme, it was announced last December that the number of SNAs was being capped at the existing level of 10,575 whole-time equivalent posts. This has caused individual problems since but the real test of how the cap is going to be managed will come in September.
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