INTO condemns cuts to special needs supports

PRIMARY teachers have unanimously condemned cuts and freezes to supports for pupils with special needs but backed down from calls for industrial action on the issue.

As schools face delays and probable cuts to resource teaching hours for children with more serious learning difficulties due to an unexpected growth in numbers, a motion before the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) congress sought a campaign for industrial action to reverse this and previous cuts to special education.

However, just as they did on Tuesday in relation to calls for a similar mandate to overturn cuts in supports for Traveller and rural disadvantaged children, delegates heeded union leaders’ warnings that industrial action would breach the Croke Park agreement and risk cuts to their pay and possible compulsory redundancies.