*Flagmount NS.
UNNECESSARY worry and distress was caused by initial plans in the Department of Education to cut back on the amount of special needs assistant posts in Co Clare with some schools in the county still “on tenterhooks”.
Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton (FG) on Wednesday announced a pause to the review of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) allocations following concerns raised by parents and schools.
All review changes including those who have already received letters regarding any reductions, have been paused pending the outcome of engagement on the issue, a spokesperson for the Minister confirmed.
Schools such as Feakle NS and Flagmount NS were among those told they were to lose SNA posts for the next academic year, prior to the pause. Before Wednesday’s intervention, schools were informed they had until February 23rd to appeal the decision.
Ireland South MEP, Michael McNamara (IND) said plans to reduce SNAs was the State penalising children for its own failures.
In Flagmount, they were informed of the plans to cut back on the special education support comes after the East Clare school submitted over 450 pages of documentation for a National Council for Special Education (NCSE) review in December. Several children have been waiting more than two years for HSE diagnostic assessments due to systemic backlogs, leaving the school unable to provide the evidence required yet the NCSE has proceeded to cut support.
In a statement to The Clare Echo, McNamara commented, “The State is penalising children for failures in its own assessment system. You cannot demand evidence while simultaneously failing to provide assessments, then cut support because the evidence isn’t there”.
Scariff native McNamara questioned the timeline, noting the decision appeared to have been made before the review evidence could have been properly evaluated, and flagged a pattern of SNA redistribution across Clare and nationally that contradicts government pledges to increase provision.
He welcomed the decision of Minister Naughton to pause the plans. “I welcome the pause, it has caused worry and distress which was not necessary. Flagmount is not unique in Clare, I have visited them recently, I see their efforts on inclusion and children who need learning support and children from Ukraine being supported there. In a two teacher school the loss of a SNA there is massive compared to massive schools, it wasn’t thought out at all by the Department of Education”.
Raising the issue of SNA cutbacks in the Dáil, Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF) stated, “While I am delighted to see the Minister hit the pause button on that, many schools such as Feakle National School, Flagmount Central National School in my own county and many more lie on tenterhooks, not knowing what is going to happen. I have had some very heartfelt letters from children who have benefited from SNA support in their school. It is an enabler for them to access education. We need to know what lies ahead, apart from the pause button being hit.
“Circular 30/2014 redefined how SNAs support children. It said from now on support is based on complex care needs. That is so myopic and does not take into account the whole spectrum of needs children in a classroom can have in day. I say that as a former teacher, as someone who formerly worked as an SNA, and as someone who has a person quite close to them who benefited from special education. It is so myopic to say ‘complex care needs’. These children need access to education every day of the week, not just toileting, feeding and medicine. We need to scrap that circular at the same time this cutback is paused. Please scrap the circular and rewrite it,” he added.
Responding, Taoiseach Micheál Martin (FF) outlined that the number of SNAs nationally will increase from 23,000 to 25,000 in September. “I listed earlier that since 2020, we have had an extra 8,000 plus SNAs. That is the level of expansion that has occurred. It is enormous by any standard and that should be acknowledged. There were pressures on certain schools as a result of the recent review and therefore we have paused it. Ministers will engage now with the NCSE and there will be engagement with all the schools that got an indication of a reduction.
“I caution Deputies on the role and remit of SNAs. They cannot solve all problems in schools; they were never meant to. Their fundamental role is to facilitate and help the participation of children in schools. Other aspects of the needs of those children will have to be supported in other ways. That is the reason we are introducing therapies in schools, for example,” he flagged.
