O'Keeffe forced to defend special needs cuts [Irish Examiner]
- Published: 06 May 2009
Source: Irish Examiner
THE Government will be forced to defend one of the cuts to special needs students in the Dáil tomorrow when a vote is taken on a Fine Gael motion seeking a reprieve for the 534 affected children.
The party's education spokesman, Brian Hayes, will propose the motion ahead of an hour-and-a-half debate tonight and a further debate tomorrow morning before the vote is taken.
Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe revealed the cut in February. It will save his department €7.5 million a year and result in 128 classes for children with mild general learning disability (MGLD) at 119 schools being axed from next September.
Under criteria in place since 1999, there must be at least nine children with MGLD (formerly known as mild mental handicap) for a school to have such a class but the affected classes have fewer pupils than required.
The Fine Gael motion calls for the retention of these classes for the next school year, pending the outcome of a review of the number of classes in this area. Mr Hayes is proposing that there should be dialogue with education stakeholders and parents of affected children before a decision is made.
Where the number of pupils with MGLD is falling, the party is proposing that classes should be merged or amalgamated where they are in neighbouring schools to allow children to continue to receive the same level of assistance they have had for a number of years.
Following pressure on the Government over a Labour motion to reject the planned axing of the Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients, a number of ministers had to abandon overseas duties to vote for the Government counter-motion. Mr O'Keeffe was among those affected by the move last week, having been due to attend a meeting of EU education ministers in Brussels, but the Government won the vote comfortably by 79 to 68.
The minister said the Fine Gael motion on special classes demonstrates dual policy by the party, as Mr O'Keeffe wishes to see children with MGLD integrated with their peers but the opposition was trying to have things every way.
He said the decision to close the special classes was in response to the application of pupil-teacher ratio criteria that had been in place for a decade, but Fine Gael had never suggested how those criteria could be changed.
Parents and teachers of the children concerned have pleaded with the minister to come and see how the the special classes are taught.
