Pupils with disabilities may face year’s wait for support
Resource teaching hours for this school year were allocated in June after Education Minister Ruairi Quinn was forced to reverse plans for further cuts to resource teaching for over 40,000 pupils with disabilities.
However, the National Council for Special Education has given schools until Friday week to apply for resource hours and special needs assistants (SNAs).
The council already had applications for resource teaching on behalf of 1,414 primary and second-level pupils from mid-March up to last Tuesday.
However, teachers say it is impossible for newly identified issues to be assessed just three weeks into the school year, particularly with more than 71,000 children having just started junior infants.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation has called for an extension, saying the deadline is unfair to pupils and comes at one of the busiest times for principals.
“With 10,000 more children in primary schools this year, it is obvious there will be an increase in pupils with special needs and not all will have an assessment of need completed before enrolment,” said INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan.
“In some cases, special needs may only become apparent after a number of weeks in school, by which time it will be too late to get an assessment and make an application. This is effectively saying that children will have to do without additional support for a full school year.”
The Department of Education said it does not anticipate many applications for resource teaching or SNAs after the Sept 20 deadline but any that arrive will be considered by the NCSE and decided on if they arise.
This suggests a change in policy, but the department could not clarify whether changes are planned.
Primary schools are each given a set number of resource teachers, based on pupil numbers, to cater for children with more common learning difficulties.
However, despite rising enrolments, staffing limits imposed by the troika mean those numbers are capped at 4,685 and just 5,265 resource teachers can be allocated by the NCSE for those with disabilities.
Schools must normally wait until spring to apply on behalf of pupils with new assessments and SNAs or resource teachers are then in place for the start of the following school year. The need to hold back some posts to accommodate ‘late’ applications was behind last year’s provision of just 85% of recommended resource teaching hours and Mr Quinn tried to reduce that to 75% in June because of increased demand.
The NCSE will have to notify his department how many extra teachers are needed, on foot of applications up to Friday week, before any decision on the level of resources. The department says SNAs can still be appointed without breaching the 10,575 limit agreed in the four-year deal signed with the troika.
