Students with special needs to lose 10% of required teaching

PUPILS with special needs are to lose 10% of the resource teaching they need under the latest education cutbacks imposed because of EU/IMF staffing limits.

Schools will be notified of the move today. It could mean 300 fewer teachers working with special needs students than experts say should be provided.

As a result, tens of thousands of pupils will have to be taught in larger groups, lose one-to-one teaching, or have their special needs classes cut short.

At second level, all special needs students must have resource teaching hours sanctioned by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

In primary schools, NCSE approval is only required for supports for those with more serious disabilities such as hearing or visual impairment, or autism, with overall pupil numbers in each school determining additional supports for those with more common learning difficulties, like dyslexia.

Under its employment control framework, as part of the EU/IMF requirements, the Department of Education has an upper limit of 9,960 posts to work with all these groups, 350 more than were in place last year.

Although up to 400 more posts could be needed by the end of this year, 9,856 were in place at the end of March, when the NCSE was told to put the sanction of further posts on hold.

The department said the new measure is designed to ensure it keeps within staffing limits and to cater for late or emergency applications, or gaps in schools from which teachers are redeployed.

It means that if a school has a recommendation that pupils with special needs should get 50 hours a week of resource teaching, the department will only pay for 45 hours a week in the next school year. The Joint Managerial Body (JMB), representing boards of almost 400 second-level schools, said schools are glad to finally know their special needs staffing, but any drop in teaching hours is regrettable.

“Every hour and every minute is critical in providing support and help to the learning of students with special educational needs,” said JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly.

A department spokes-person said it is hoped that allocations may increase after late applications are examined, expected after schools reopen in September.

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation general secretary Sheila Nunan condemned the move as another example of cuts being imposed on the most needy pupils, in addition to reduced services for Travellers and newcomer children.

“Schools that have been most inclusive of all children will be worst affected. Special needs children cannot cope in classes among the most overcrowded in Europe without the additional help and support given by resource teachers,” she said.

The National Parents Council-Primary said the latest cut will add to the anxiety of parents of pupils starting school next autumn or who already get resource teaching hours.

Chief executive Áine Lynch said: “But there needs to be an examination of how all resources are allocated for pupils with special needs, including how education and health services like speech and language therapy are integrated.”

She said Education Minister Ruairi Quinn should fully implement the 2004 education law that would ensure pupils receive all the appropriate supports recommended by health professionals.