‘Special needs students being denied’

SPECIAL needs and disadvantaged students are being denied proper teaching because of Government restrictions, teachers warned last night.

The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) says more than one-third of schools have not been given enough resource teachers to work with special needs students.

The schools made the applications on the basis of recommendations from Department of Education psychologists since last September. But 46 of the 121 principals responding to a survey said they had been refused the full complement of resource teacher hours they needed.

Many of the students who avail of the services of resource teachers are at schools in disadvantaged areas.

“This survey indicates that despite Minister Noel Dempsey’s talk of prioritising those who are educationally disadvantaged, the Department of Education is restricting resources which are vital to schools working to meet the needs of these students,” said ASTI president PJ Sheehy.

“Ireland has a first world economy and third world class sizes. It is outrageous that the schools with already overcrowded classes are being deprived of additional resources in this way.”

The union demanded that all schools be immediately allocated the correct number of teaching hours and staff, and called for clarification on the availability of special resources for second level schools.

A Department of Education spokesperson said the number of students at second level has fallen by over 35,000 in recent years.

“In the same period, teacher numbers have increased by over 15,000. The actual pupil teacher ratio has fallen from 16:1 to 13.5:1 in this period and will continue to decline over the coming years,” she said.

An ASTI spokesperson said most schools now seek some allocation of teaching hours for special needs students, and most requests had been granted in previous years. Only 63 of the schools which took part in the survey had received all the allocations they sought, while another 12 were awaiting a decision from the department.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education tightened up procedures for allocating special needs and resource teachers at primary level. This resulted in applications for assistance for around 1,500 pupils in more than 600 schools being rejected after a review ordered by Mr Dempsey.

The ASTI also found that just under one-third of schools which had applied for concessionary hours were refused on a more restrictive basis than other years. This applies to schools seeking part-time teachers to prepare classes for a foundation level exam, for example, or to teach a subject not normally offered in the school.

Less than half of the schools were satisfied with their allocation, while one-in-four were awaiting a decision.