Primary pupil’s special tuition is axed

CIANA McGARRIGLE stopped crying on her way to school every day after she started getting extra help with her maths a year ago.

But the 10-year-old will start fifth class this morning without the two-and-a-half hours of individual tuition she was getting every week at Daingean National School in Offaly up to last June.

Her mother Geraldine is preparing an appeal against the decision, made under Department of Education criteria for allocation of resource teaching hours.

“Ciana has a specific learning disability but it only affects her maths and she has no difficulty with language,” she said. “If you compare her tests from before she got the extra intervention, you can prove the value of two-and-a-half hours a week.”

After spending almost three years trying to have Ciana assessed, the resource teaching was finally allocated a year ago and Geraldine thought this help would continue through to sixth class. But she was told in July that her daughter’s individual classes are no longer approved, and instead she can join a learning support class for half an hour every day.

Ciana’s attitude to school had changed in just a year, from fear and crying every morning to excitement leaving home, but now she is very unhappy again.

“She’s the only pupil in the school with this learning difficulty and she could teach the English to the learning support class herself. She could get 600 points in her Leaving Certificate but she might not get into college without maths,” said Geraldine.

“There are a lot of kids who have one little problem but it turns them off school and I’m told that if I want to get support for her at second level, I should start looking now if she’s to have it by Leaving Certificate,” she said.

“Noel Dempsey, the Minister for Education, talks about levelling the playing field but he’s not doing that because there’s a lot of school children in the same situation as Ciana.”

The Department of Education said it does not comment on specific cases in relation to special needs allocations. But a spokesperson said there has been no cutback in the level of resources available for special needs.

“Additional resources continue to be sanctioned and the level of resources dedicated to special needs has never been greater. While inevitably there will be applicants who do not meet the criteria for the allocation of additional resources, any refusal in such cases is merely because they do not meet the criteria and not because of any cutback,” she said.