12% of special needs pupils ‘never like school’.
The pupils’ low levels of school engagement are largely explained by a low academic outlook and poor relations with their classmates and teachers.
Around one-in-seven of the 8,578 nine-year-olds involved in the study were identified by their teachers as having at least one special need. These included physical or sensory disabilities, speech impairment, learning disabilities, emotional behavioural difficulties (EBD) such as attention deficit disorder, or multiple disabilities.
While just 7% of the overall study group analysed by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) reported that they “never like school”, the number rose to almost 12% when the responses of children with a special need were examined.
The research, based on data gathered for the long-running Growing Up in Ireland study found, however, that the number who never like school is higher still among those with certain special educational needs.
It is 13% among those with learning difficulties and those with multiple needs, and rises to 14% for pupils with an EBD.
“Children with physical or sensory disabilities or those with speech impairments, however, are no more likely to dislike school than children with no reported special need,” wrote co-authors Joanne Banks and Selina McCoy in an ESRI research bulletin.
“This suggests that children with learning disabilities face an additional barrier in integrating into school life.”
The research found the more negative attitudes of children with special needs were closely associated with academic engagement and interactions with teachers and peers. Academic engagement was measured by teachers’ reports of how often a child does not complete homework and pupils’ own reports of whether they liked maths and reading.
Once these factors were taken into account, there was no further difference in school engagement between children with and without special educational needs.
The ESRI researchers say that, despite significant investment in special education, little is known up to now about the effectiveness of increasing the number of students with special needs attending mainstream schools. This is one of the major changes since the passing of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act in 2004, along with the trebling of special needs assistant numbers.
A cap on resource teachers at 9,950 means children with the most acute special needs have individual weekly hours of additional teaching allocated to them at 85% of what was provided up to 2011.
A cut to 75% intended for the coming school year will not go ahead after pressure on Ruairi Quinn, the education minister, forced him to retain the current levels in June.
* Special education budget: €1.3bn.
* Special needs assistants (mainstream and special schools): 10,575.
* Resource and learning support teachers (mainstream schools): 9,950.
