Call for reverse to cuts in Special Needs Assistants [fingal-independent.ie]
- Published: 30 September 2011
LOCAL councillors have called on the controversial cuts in Special Needs Assistants (SNA) in our schools to be reversed saying that Fingal has a particular case for maintaining a high number of SNAs.
Cllr Matthew Waine (SP) who raised the issue at a meeting of the full council said it was ironic that when Queen Elizabeth II visited that three children representing the travelling community, immigrants and children with special needs were chosen to ring ' The Peace Bell' at Aras an Uachtarain.
He said the irony was that it was these three groups who went on to be 'attacked' by what he called 'savage cuts' in the SNA service. Cllr Waine gave one example of a child whose mother had died and was left in school without a word in English and no access to a language support teacher in his school. He said the Minister for Education did not understand the terrible impact of the cuts and should take tim out to talk to parents and students affected by them and then reverse the cut-backs. Cllr David McGuinness (FF) who is a teacher himself, said that the SNA initiative should be ' guarded as much as possible against cuts'.
Full Story: www.fingal-independent.ie
