Outrage as special needs pupils lose assistants
Primary schools throughout South Tipperary are reeling from the devastating loss of Special Needs Assistant posts since Monday.
Every community has been hit by the SNA blow following a Department of Education review but the town of Fethard has lost out more than most, losing all of its SNA posts in both primary schools.
"These cutbacks are appalling. As a result of this review the entire town of Fethard is now without an SNA in either of its primary schools, " said Patricia Treacy, principal of the boys national school in the town.
Her school, St Patricks NS for boys and the nearby girls school, Nano Nagle NS, have lost their entire complement of SNAs in the review.
1,200 SNA posts have been lost throughout the country with no breakdown for South Tipperary, according to an Impact spokesperson.
"The department is refusing to give us a breakdown for the different areas throughout the country. Every primary school has been affected by this review," said the union spokesperson.
The Department of Education review has cost St Patricks NS one full time SNA and one part time SNA while the Nano Nagle has lost its one SNA post.
It means that primary schools serving Fethard with a combined attendance of two hundred pupils now have no SNA working in their schools.
"The decision is crazy, so frustrating. I have heard Education Minister Batt O Keeffe saying that the children who have special needs will get an SNA but I am looking at children since Monday who do need them having had their SNA taken away from them.
"We have gone through every process possible to try and keep those posts but to no avail. Nobody listened to us. On Monday the day finally came when we lost them" said Patricia Treacy.
"Only the children who needed an SNA had them." said the principal.
In her school one full time SNA had been there for five years, the part time SNA had been there for two years.
"It is a huge blow to this school, the decision tears away at the whole fabric of the school of which the SNAs were an integral part of," she said.
"Every child in the school will lose out as a result of this decision. The SNA not only supported the children they were assigned to but they helped the children around them and provided assistance to the teacher which was invaluable, particularly in a multi class situation," she added.
Her counterpart in the girls national school school, Sister Maureen, said the SNA they lost had been at their school for five years.
The school principal said that the SNA was an awful loss to the school, to the child she was helping and to the teacher in whose classroom she was working.
"It is a terrible loss because the SNA was assigned to two pupils and was providing invaluable support to them and to the teacher in the classroom. I am very disappointed that the system has let us down like this," she said.
South Tipperary TD Tom Hayes hit out at the loss of SNA posts all over South Tipperary.
"The idea behind the SNA was to go give the special needs child a 'level playing field' or, at best, a reasonable chance of keeping up with the mainstream. The Minister must state and account for how this can happen in the absence of the SNA. He has put no other support in place instead. It is not fair to expect the teacher to cope alone," he said.
"The SNAs have received special training and have built up a relationship with the child with whom they work. To expect teachers to teach an entire class and also meet the needs of a special needs child is unacceptable and everyone will suffer as a consequence," added Deputy Hayes.
Cllr. Darren Ryan said parents are becoming increasingly concerned that children will be denied the education that they deserve as a result of the SNA review.
"This development is a slap in the face to the thousands of children who rely on SNAs in classrooms around the country. Any reduction in SNA numbers means that not only will these children themselves suffer, but teachers cannot be expected to have all the skills required to provide for a child with special needs and in this regard, they need whatever support they can get."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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