We must support nation’s young pupils

THE National Council for Special Education (NCSE), the body charged with advising the minister for education on the teaching of children with special needs, is listening carefully to students, parents, and advocacy groups.

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.