TUI official calls for school psychologists increase

THE number of school psychologists should be almost doubled immediately to ease the crisis of second-level students with special needs waiting years for vital assessments, a teachers’ leader has claimed.

There are just over 120 such staff in the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) but Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) assistant general secretary John MacGabhann said this must be raised.

He made the call in a plea for a significant funding increase for special education, beyond those announced in the Department of Education’s spending estimates earlier this month.