Special needs pupils taught in security hut

A SCHOOL whose special needs pupils are being taught in a security hut has demanded urgent accommodation from the Department of Education.

Seán Ó Donaile, principal of Gaelscoil Bharra in Dublin 7, said the appointment of a second resource teacher next September could mean these pupils will have to be taught outdoors because of the shortage of space. The school has been running in the grounds of a GAA club in Cabra since being founded a decade ago and has received no extra accommodation since employing a resource teacher in 2002.

“We had to buy a building site hut for the resource teacher’s classes, but it is also used for storage, library books and wheelie bins,” said Mr Ó Donaile. The department has told the school its application for a resource room for next year has been unsuccessful. Around 15 of the school’s 230 pupils receive up to half an hour of one-to-one resource teaching each day and the lack of appropriate accommodation prompted parents to protest outside the Department of Education in Dublin yesterday.