‘Scrap Junior Certificate to fund special needs’

EDUCATE Together has called on the Government to abolish the Junior Certificate so special needs funding can be made a priority.

Paul Rowe, the chief executive of the multi-denominational school patron body, said: “All educational commentators agree that the Junior Cert exam no longer serves any real purpose.

By simply not holding a state exam we can save €30 million.”

The body is calling for a review of cuts to special needs education, describing current cuts as “false economies” that will incur far greater social costs in the future.

It also singled out the Vocational Educational Committees as a source of potential savings. It said that, even after proposed amalgamations, there will “still be 16 separate state-funded bodies to administer one third of the second-level infrastructure, when the entire primary sector is managed by voluntary boards at a fraction of the cost to the state”.

“Special needs education needs investment, not funding cuts,” he said.

“The impact these cuts are having are enormous and children are being damaged because of them.

“It is Government policy to teach children with special needs in mainstream schools wherever possible. Yet they are cutting the resources and services to schools, resulting in less specialist care being available.”

He criticised the Government for underfunding special schools, which are the only potential educational outlet for children with moderate to severe needs.

“There are extraordinarily dedicated professionals in primary schools across the country who are presented with impossible situations on a daily basis. This has to stop — we are calling on the Minister of Education to make special needs education a funding priority and reverse the previous administration’s cuts.”

The group is patron to 60 primary schools, several of which have dedicated special needs units.