Convenient excuse for more cuts

IN another damning instance of the Coalition’s hard-nosed attitude towards those at risk, the invaluable help which specialist teachers give children with special needs is being curtailed.

A much stricter assessment process by the Department of Education is keeping thousands of children and their families in the dark over teacher allocation, and it could be months into the new school year before they receive the help they need, if at all.

The number of resource teachers and special-needs assistants has increased dramatically, especially in primary schools, where each child is allocated a number of hours each week with a resource teacher. But cutbacks have already resulted in 600 applications for extra staff for 1,500 primary pupils turned down. This will have a domino effect as teachers are often shared by several schools.

The clampdown was prompted by a survey showing one-in-eight schoolchildren receive some form of special education, four times the EU average.

However, as the rejection rate of applications continues and more children with special needs are denied access to this vital resource, the inevitable conclusion is that the EU contrast is a convenient smokescreen for more cutbacks.