Principal: SNA cuts make policy ‘pointless’

GOVERNMENT policy of integrating children with special needs into mainstream schools will be pointless if there are more cuts to staff helping them in class, a principals’ leader warned yesterday.

Hundreds of special needs assistants (SNAs) who help with physical and behavioural difficulties of thousands of pupils have been made redundant this weekend, in a move described yesterday by Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) director Sean Cottrell as a ruthless culling.

Almost 1,200 of the 10,500 SNA positions could be axed as a result of a review at 4,000 schools, according to preliminary figures from the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) last summer.

But IPPN president Pat Goff said the NCSE review, which began last April and was just one-third completed by Christmas, is not focusing on educational needs. He said the focus is on physical care needs without consideration for the effect on pupils or their classmates after they lose SNA support.

“The SNA allows these pupils access the curriculum by keeping them on task or, in some cases, stopping them leaving their desks. But if they’re not there, the teacher has to do these things,” Mr Goff said.

“There are parents of kids with autism, for example, who’ve had to fight for every resource. We still want parents to have a choice of mainstream schools but if they can’t access the supports they might not choose to do so anymore,” he said.

IMPACT, the union representing around half of SNAs, has a mandate for industrial action and has indicated it may introduce a work-to-rule.

Batt O’Keeffe told delegates at the IPPN annual conference yesterday the priority remains the rights of children with special needs, but that the review is following up on findings of a Department of Education survey that some schools with an SNA no longer had pupils with special needs.

Despite the review not being due for completion until late March according to the NCSE, the minister said the cuts had to begin taking place now as schools had a number of months’ notice on the issue.

“The criteria for supports for a special needs child has not changed but I want to ensure that any decision we come to is based on the actual need of the child,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

“IMPACT are talking about 1,200 SNA posts being lost but there is no basis for these figures. At the end of March we will have [the outcome of] a full comprehensive review to see exactly what the impact is,” he said.

An Bord Snip Nua recommended last summer 2,000 SNA posts should be cut to save €60 million a year.