We must support nation’s young pupils
As part of a consultation process, which is ongoing, we have met with groups such as Inclusion Ireland, Down Syndrome Ireland, the National Parents Council (primary) as well as teachers, the HSE, school management bodies, principals, and others, to discuss how resources could be better targeted to support children with special educational needs.
It has been reported that advocacy groups had been excluded from the NCSE working group established at the request of Ruairi Quinn, the education minister, earlier this year to develop a proposal for a new model for allocating special educational teaching resources to mainstream primary and post-primary schools.
I would like to take this opportunity to reassure parents and advocacy groups that nothing could be further from the truth. We are acutely aware of the sensitivities involved in the area of special education and are always available to listen and provide support.
The NCSE is an independent agency. Our creation coincided with a remarkable increase in investment in supporting children with special educational needs. In 2004, this stood at €468m. This year, almost three times that amount, or €1.3bn, has been spent every year on special education including this year — and this is despite the difficulties our economy has faced in recent years.
Figures of this scale can be difficult to fathom, but to put them in context; €1.3bn is roughly the same amount as the annual budget of An Garda Síochána. This level of continuing investment is the clearest evidence available that, as a nation, we continue to value investment in supporting children with special educational needs. But all the money in the world cannot guarantee better outcomes for our children. We want all of our children to be cherished, respected, and welcomed in our schools and in our communities. If that desire is genuine, we must ensure that children with special educational needs have equitable access to the supports that they require.
Earlier this year, we published a policy advice paper entitled Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools. This paper identified a significant problem with the way these resources are allocated to schools. The current model, for example, requires a formal diagnosis of disability before resource teaching hours are allocated. There can be long waiting lists for public diagnostic services.
Teaching resources are not being allocated to greatest effect. Some schools have a greater level of learning support than they require relative to other schools, while others have less than they need. We are working to address this. All of our policy work is based on research evidence, international best practice, and expert knowledge and informed through engagement with students, parents, and advocacy groups.
We are aware that we cannot continue to administer a system that allocates special educational resources on an inequitable basis. Therefore, we are currently working on developing a proposal for a new model for allocating special educational teaching resources to mainstream primary and post-primary schools. This new model will be based on the profiled need of each school, without the need for a diagnosis of disability.
We have formed a core NCSE working group to develop this new model that includes the CEO of the National Parents’ Council (Primary) and a parent of children with disabilities, who is also a board director of Inclusion Ireland. We are meeting with a wide range of groups at the moment and will be listening closely to what they have to say. This isn’t simple work to carry out, but it is work that urgently needs to be done.
We have committed to providing the minister with an initial update on the work to create this model within the next fortnight, and the work will be completed early in 2014.
* Teresa Griffin is CEO of the National Council for Special Education
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