10% of special needs assistants lost, survey finds

MORE than one-in-10 special needs assistants (SNAs) working with pupils with disabilities have been lost in primary schools despite official claims that the losses resulting from a review would be nowhere near as high, a survey of 850 schools has found.

The Irish Examiner reported last July that about 1,160 (or 11%) of the 10,500 SNAs in primary and second-level schools may be lost, based on preliminary outcomes of the National Council for Special Education review ordered by then education minister Batt O’Keeffe. He has repeatedly rejected these figures as exaggerated and claimed any loss of SNA posts would be a result of diminished needs among pupils or children moving from a school.

However, a survey by the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) supports the estimate, showing that 278 of the 2,862 SNAs (9.7%) employed at more than a quarter of the country’s 3,300 primary schools last September have been lost. Only 593 of the surveyed schools had their review finished, suggesting the final reduction could be closer to a 13% reduction across the primary sector.