School principals turn to charities to assess students

PRINCIPALS countrywide are turning to cash-strapped charities in a desperate bid to obtain funding for students’ psychological assessments, the Irish Examiner has learnt.

As The Society of the St Vincent de Paul prepares to meet with the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin tomorrow for the first time since the Irish Examiner revealed it paid for over 1,000 assessments last year, it has emerged that other charities are also making significant donations. Barnardos has spent “several thousand” euro on psychological assessments for children who desperately need access to a resource teacher. Yesterday, its chief executive Fergus Finlay said the Department of Education needed to trust the judgement of principals and sanction additional assessments in schools on a case-by-case basis.

Last year, the Dublin Inner City Partnership funded 10 schools, providing two assessments to each at an approximate cost of €7,000.