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.

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.