660 extra teachers for special needs work

MOST primary schools will have enough staff to cater for pupils with special needs as a result of an extra 660 extra resource teachers announced by Education Minister Mary Hanafin.

The posts are being allocated under a new staff allocation system for next September, with the number of jobs in each school dependent on enrolment numbers.

At a cost of €34 million, it replaces an earlier proposed staffing model, announced by former minister Noel Dempsey last June. It was also based on pupil numbers, but would have resulted in 1,300 schools losing 664 existing special needs jobs.

Ms Hanafin said 340 of the posts will be permanent and 320 temporary posts are designed to ensure a smooth transition to the new system.

Resources are being put permanently in schools to ensure a fast response when a teacher identifies a child requiring special needs education, in keeping with the Government's policy of automatic response.

"It reduces the need for individual applications and the supporting psychological assessments," she said.

"It puts the resources in place on a more regular basis so the schools know from year to year what the resource is going to be.

"That obviously means they are able to attract teachers on a permanent basis into this kind of work.

"There is a great degree of flexibility given to school management in redeployment of the resources, which means you can have a very effective delivery of service for the children," she added.

Ms Hanafin stressed her concern that children previously given an individual allocation will not lose out as a result of the new regime.

The staffing system under which the jobs have been promised marks the outcome of a six-month review announced by Ms Hanafin shortly after she took office. It will cater for the majority of special needs children who have common learning difficulties, while pupils with more serious special needs such as autism and physical disabilities will continue to be catered for on the basis of professional assessments.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) expressed delight at the new system, which provides more than the 650 jobs they had demanded to ensure adequate help for every pupil with special needs.

"It's the single biggest increase in teachers in a year, ever," said INTO general secretary John Carr.

He said there would be sufficient teachers coming out of training colleges to fill the posts. The system will also ease difficulties faced by some recently-qualified primary teachers finding work.

For many parents, having their child's special educational needs met was a lengthy and expensive process, the minister noted.

For the first time, each primary school will be allocated resource teaching hours based on their enrolment figures to cater for pupils with special educational needs, such as dyslexia.

The system should also ensure smaller schools are well catered for with special needs staff after it emerged they would suffer more than large schools under the scheme previously proposed.

"When I was appointed on September 29 last I wanted to make sure that this new system would be of benefit to all the primary schools," said Ms Hanafin.

Nearly 1,200 extra teachers are being brought into special education, according to Mr Carr.

This comprises 350 teachers announced last April, an additional 173 put into the system earlier this school year and yesterday's announcement of 660 extra teachers.

Mr Carr said Ms Hanafin and Finance Minister Brian Cowen deserved credit for approving the extra posts, which clearly demonstrated a commitment to increased fairness by targeting increased resources where they were needed.

Yesterday's announcement should give schools enough time to recruit additional staff for next September.