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.

As Professor John Monaghan of SVP points out, the charity has always been content to provide money for items not made available by the State such as food and clothing. But psychological assessments are supposed to be State-funded.

So widespread is the problem that SVP is regularly paying for psychological assessments for students in schools ranging from Dublin to Cork, Sligo, Letterkenny, Dundalk, Cavan, Navan and Carlingford. On average, the bill comes to around €330 per child.

So niggardly is the Government’s approach to this issue that one Cork principal suggests that many schools serviced by NEPS can only access two psychological assessments per year. This raises serious questions about the effectiveness of a scheme designed to give pupils from deprived areas a better chance of getting on in life.

Under the terms and conditions of the NEPS service, principals are not entitled to fund additional assessments from school finances. Some have become so frustrated they are having to approach local businessmen and charities for help.

According to the INTO, the primary teachers’ union, the operation of the scheme has been hampered by a glaring lack of co-ordination between the Departments of Health and Education. Teachers are also highly critical of the department’s insistence that assessments contain a definitive diagnosis of need before additional resources are provided.

It would be hard to exaggerate the sheer cynicism of a chicken-and-egg approach that is predicated on the assumption that all schools have access to a psychologist. The result, according to the INTO is that thousands of children are being denied vital resources.

Aspects of the service have also come in for criticism in a revealing report from the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee. Among other problems, it questioned the practice of centrally recruiting psychologists and then sending them to the regions to work.

Unsurprisingly, many refused to move from Dublin and as a result there are serious regional imbalances in the service.

Judging by the growing demands on SVP resources, the State is failing pupils in many schools. Decisive action is urgently needed to resolve this problem.

Professor Monaghan has come up with a novel idea to provide psychological assessments under a system modelled on the Private Purchase Treatment Fund. In other words, a child would be seen privately after remaining on a waiting list for a certain period of time.

This looks like a worthwhile initiative and ought to be explored by Education Minister Mary Hanafin.

Regrettably, charities are increasingly picking up the pieces as a result of Government neglect of those on the margins of society. It is outrageous that because of Government lack of commitment, they are now supplementing a State educational scheme designed to provide psychological help for pupils with behavioural or learning difficulties.