SNA cuts won’t be known until March

THE number of special needs assistants (SNAs) being cut from schools will not be made known until a review is completed next month, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has insisted.

Although he rejects the loss of 1,200 jobs projected by the Irish Examiner, based on the outcome of a review at almost a quarter of the country’s 4,000 schools last summer, the minister said it would be wrong to disclose the number of SNA positions already axed.

The review to determine if all special needs children with SNAs still need the same level of support began last April and was just one-third complete by early December, but all jobs identified as not required were cut from the end of January.