Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I say to the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, NAPD, that although we may not have always sung from the same hymn sheet in a former professional life of mine, I know the work it does in preparing principals to deal with all the issues we are talking about is incredible. I have seen the agenda for the conferences, along with some of the work and training being done. I compliment the delegation on embracing the area of special educational needs.

Special educational needs is such a broad term that it covers every sort of disability under the sun. In itself, that causes a problem. In further education - my former career - we would have seen parents trying to hide the fact that their child had special educational needs coming through the system, with half a year lost by the time they get into system. This goes back to Deputy O'Brien's comments about a passport. I would almost argue that the passport should bring the special educational needs child with it, moving from one sector to the next. At least there would be a continuity and security of dealing with the same person all the time. That concerns me.

Like my colleague, Senator Moran, I am anxious to know how the educational psychologists would be financed, as it seems like a brilliant idea. It is a pity we do not have it in every school. The witnesses spoke about a special educational needs trained co-ordinator but will this be a teacher or assistant principal, for example? Does it refer to a line of promotional posts available to special educational needs operatives in a school? I am interested in how this would be done.

I know how inventive principals have to be from time to time with regard to reduced timetables. The less said about that, the better, as how they manage to do things is sometimes better left unsaid. The transfer from second level to further education is of concern and there is little enough in the guidance area. It strikes me that a guidance person with the special educational needs co-ordinator is required in the step-up to further education, with all parties working together. Sadly, that does not happen in many cases. With regard to assisting technology, Mr. Byrne knows that when we see students moving from second level to higher education, the technology can take six months to catch up with the student, and by then almost an entire year is lost. We discussed readers and scribes a couple of weeks ago. A parent may be reluctant to bring information at the outset of a transition from primary to second level or from second level to further education so people may not be aware of a problem. Sometimes, the issue arises so late it can be in an exam period. If that arises, we default to what is best for the student, even if that means we give a scribe and reader to somebody who really does not need it. I am interested in the view of the delegation on that.

I do not want to get into how the timetables are managed as that is an issue for the principals in schools. If they are inventive with that, I congratulate them on that. With regard to the training programmes laid on by the NAPD, we have education conferences every year for the trade unions but we know they are about industrial relations, although there is some degree of education. I would love to see an approach where all our baggage could be left outside the door of an education conference. I know the Education and Training Boards of Ireland is doing something this coming week but I would like to see something more in the area.