(Ireland) Schools cannot manage 'growing, increasingly complex needs'
- 26 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Oireachtas [parliament] education committee heard that school leaders and special education teams are trying to stretch finite resources across growing and increasingly complex needs.
Ireland is a rich country. Alongside it, we like to paint ourselves as an egalitarian, caring, and fair-minded society, but there are times when you have to wonder if the reality is anywhere close to those lofty ideals.
On Thursday, the Oireachtas education committee was told how many schools cannot manage the necessary inclusion policies for children with disabilities — especially those in the primary school sector.
The Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) addressed the committee yesterday, and what it said was both shocking and revelatory.
Its representatives revealed that school leaders and special education teams are fighting an uphill battle “trying to stretch finite resources across growing and increasingly complex needs”.
The IPPN also highlighted the fact that the Department of Education’s traditional “resource allocation models” are driven by largely predetermined budgetary levels, instead of assessing schools’ needs according to their individual and unique nature.
Back in January, the IPPN surveyed school leaders about the reality of the provision of additional educational supports. The results, it reported, were “stark”.
Some 80% maintained that their allocation of special education teacher hours was insufficient, while 60% said the provision of special needs assistants wasn’t matching identified care needs.
Worse again, 83% said there are children in their schools who require special education teacher support but cannot access it, and a staggering 85% said the same situation pertained with special needs assistant support.
The cumulative effect is that schools are regularly being forced into making impossible decisions about prioritisation; this makes the ideal of inclusion becoming a lived reality something of a nonsense.
Two other teaching bodies, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and the National Principal’s Forum added their weight to the argument that schools must have the staffing, funding, and expertise to make inclusion a reality rather than the delusion it currently is.
We are good at talking the talk in Ireland. Not so good, perhaps, at walking the walk.
