Psychological assessments - State failing pupils in many schools

THE State’s systematic shaving of resources intended for people on the margins of society is graphically illustrated by news that the country’s biggest charity is propping up a vital arm of the education system.

At a time when the exchequer coffers are awash with cash, it is unconscionable that St Vincent de Paul (SVP) is having to pay for psychological assessments on hundreds of students with behavioural or learning difficulties. More often than not, these students come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

There can hardly be a more revealing example of Government hypocrisy than its handling of the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS). Set up in 1999 to provide every primary and post-primary school in the country with access to a psychological service, eight years later it has yet to achieve the staffing target of 184 psychologists.