Review shows no SNA concerns

SCHOOL inspectors have not outlined any concerns about more than 40 special needs assistant (SNA) posts at more than a dozen schools visited in the last 15 months.

The findings in inspection reports published by the Department of Education yesterday and last month appear to contradict Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s insistence that many schools have kept SNAs employed after the pupils they were working with left or no longer needed them. An ongoing review of SNA posts in all 4,000 primary and second-level schools could result in almost 1,200 of about 10,500 jobs being axed.

The review by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was sought by Mr O’Keeffe last March after visits to 100 sample schools by his inspectors suggested SNAs were being employed outside the criteria for meeting care needs of pupils with disabilities. He insisted in the Seanad on Wednesday that children who need an SNA will continue to get one but that the review would only result in SNAs being withdrawn if the criteria were not being met.

In six primary schools whose whole school evaluations (WSEs) by department inspectors published yesterday refer to SNAs being employed, no concerns are raised that any of the 13 SNAs working in them were employed inappropriately. The schools were visited between February and October last year.

The report on Scoil Náisiúnta Bhaile Éamoinn in Edmondstown in Dublin 16 says the two SNAs there last February were “deployed appropriately and carry out their duties conscientiously”. The WSE report at Gilson National School in Oldcastle, Co Meath, which employed three SNAs last March states: “Specific and appropriate duties are allocated to these special-needs assistants and these duties are implemented conscientiously and unobtrusively.”

Reports about schools in Mohill, Co Leitrim, at Mungret in Limerick, Ballinacree and Dunboyne in Co Meath, made no reference to their SNA posts not fulfilling the criteria.

A further seven schools employed 28 SNAs when inspected and no concerns were raised. Inspectors who visited Cnoc Mhuire Senior NS in Killinarden, Dublin 24 a year ago said the seven SNAs make a valuable contribution to the inclusion and care of pupils in the classroom. The SNA working at SN Chríost Rí in Enniscrone, Co Sligo during an inspection last April was reported to attend carefully and diligently to the care needs of the pupils to whom she was assigned.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation said a decision to cut back on care staff in primary schools will see a return to parents going to the courts to get fair play for their children. The union’s incoming general secretary Sheila Nunan said it had no objection to a review of SNA posts provided whatever emerged allowed schools to meet children’s special educational needs.