Foley: More than 120 children without school place to get offer 'shortly'

Minister for Education Norma Foley: 'We have made great progress in special education.'

Children who remain without a school place will begin receiving offers "shortly", the education minister has said.

Figures from the Office of the Children's Ombudsman show that on September 2, there were 126 children without a school place, despite the minister for special education Hildegarde Naughton saying in June that she was "confident" children would be offered spaces where needed.

On Wednesday, Education Minister Norma Foley told the Irish Examiner that progress has been made in special education.

"I want to acknowledge we have made great progress in special education, with more than 40,000 people who are now 'dedicated professionals in the area of special education', more than 3,300 additional classes, and 11 new special schools being put in place." 

However, she accepted more need to be done. "Is that enough? Absolutely not. Do we need to do more and more in the space? We do. And it is our absolute aspiration, obviously, that every child will not just have a place, but have a place that is closest to them and will be their most immediate school."

In terms of those children yet to receive a place, Ms Foley said: "We have worked with every school in the area that might be required, and schools have really stepped up. There had to be reconfiguration works done in a variety of those schools, they're practically completed. It is my understanding that offers will be made very shortly, because each school has to run their own enrollment process, but the parents will be contacted directly in terms of the availability within their own areas, or their preference areas and then the applications will run through the schools."

The minister accepted that it would have been "far, far better to have that availability...on the first of September" and said she "would not want that to be the experience" of parents, who had undergone "stress and trauma".

"I do hope that in the coming weeks, as those offers are made now, that will that will be some solace to them."

Leaving Cert

Ms Foley was speaking as two new subjects — Drama Film and Theatre Studies, and Climate Action and Sustainable Development — were added to the Leaving Cert syllabus. She described their addition as a "tangible example to people of our great vision for senior cycle reform, where not everything will depend on a performance in one moment in June".

The Department of Education had been "blown away" by the "qualifications, enthusiasm, and interest" of the teachers in the schools that have applied to offer these subjects, Ms Foley said.

"There has been no shortage of staff willing to step forward here."

The Department will begin rolling out the required training courses to teach the new subjects before September next year, Ms Foley said, and she insisted that any necessary equipment will be provided to all schools to ensure "a level playing field."

"We’re also ensuring that there are additional allocations going into the schools in terms of additional hours. We’ve made available four hours in the first year, eight hours in the second year, so we are covering our bases. We really, really want this to work."