Review has cut 1,600 special needs posts
Thursday, April
01, 2010
But, she said, 920 of the posts were made redundant because the child the SNA had been assigned to was no longer attending the school.
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Parents and teachers have complained that the
review by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has been
applying criteria too strictly and taking no account of the educational
needs of children.
Opposing a Dáil motion from Fine Gael which
called for the review to be frozen, the new education minister said
more than 1,300 new SNA posts have been sanctioned in the same period,
reflecting the rising school population. She said the overall number of
SNA posts is down 3.5% because the estimated 10,500 SNAs employed a year
ago included many who had been kept in schools after the relevant pupil
had left.
Of more than 3,800 of the country’s 4,000-plus
schools already reviewed, 900 had no SNA while 1,500 have had no change
in the level of SNA supports.
However, 832 schools have had
their allocation reduced and 579 received an increase in SNA support.
Ms Coughlan rejected suggestions that the NCSE had made decisions to
reduce or withdraw SNA provision for pupils based solely on observing
the classroom.
She said special education needs organisers
spoke with school staff and considered professional reports before
reaching decisions.
"There is no question of posts being
removed from schools where they meet the scheme’s criteria. There have
been suggestions that my department had given a target to the NCSE for
reducing the number of SNAs. There is absolutely no truth in such
claims.
"The purpose of an SNA is to support the care needs of
children with disabilities, not to create dependency.
"Where a
child develops to such an extend that he or she no longer needs that
support, that is something to be celebrated."
Fine Gael
education spokesperson, Brian Hayes, said demand for supports is rising
rather than falling because of a growing school population. "At a time
when we are recapitalising the banks, is it not morally indefensible
that the current government stands over the abolition of SNAs to the
most vulnerable children in Irish education?"
Mr Hayes told
the Tánaiste to stop allowing an unelected body make the wrong
decisions, and said the NCSE performance in a recent appearance before
the Oireachtas education committee was pathetic as key questions went
unanswered and highlighted that the review was hopelessly inconsistent
from the start.
He said it was unfair that no appeals system
was available to parents or schools in the early stages but the one now
in place is not independent as it is carried out by a more senior NCSE
official.
An Bord Snip last summer recommended a 20% cut in
the number of SNAs from the level of around 10,500 at the time, to save
€60 million a year.