Classroom assistants - Use resource to its full

The Department of Education saved up to €13m last year by not hiring almost 300 special needs assistants for whom budget provision had been made.

Mon, 29 Oct, 2012 - 00:00

Editorial

The National Council for Special Education, which must approve the hiring of SNAs, states that about 275 posts sanctioned by the department earlier this month were not needed.

Last year, the Department of Education ordered that almost 500 SNA positions should be held in reserve to allow for late or emergency applications for them. Some 220 of that number were filled before the end of the school year.

This meant a saving on the 280 that were not applied for.

The NCSE contends that there has been confusion about the issue due to a misunderstanding of the actual role of SNAs.

They are not there to teach, but to help the special needs of pupils.

Bureaucracies almost inevitably hire more people than necessary, but parents have been vocal in their protests about the cutting of SNAs.

Such savings must not be at the expense of the handicapped, because ultimately those will not be savings at all. Society will end up paying more later.