Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 December 2016

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Discussion

2:30 pm

Photo of Catherine MartinCatherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

What are the suggestions of the other organisations on how an opt-out would work?

The spotlight has not sufficiently been put on the discrimination children with special educational needs experience when it comes to school entrance. It is appalling and is happening regularly.

There may be six secondary schools in an area and there is a practice whereby principals tell parents to go to this or that school. The league tables published last week only encourage that practice. That is not how our children should be judged and is not the education we should provide for them.

There is an argument that the power of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, should be expanded to allow it to compel schools to take on children with special educational needs and that schools should be able to provide the proper resources. It is not enough to say a school must accept a child unless there are enough resources. What is Ms Corr's opinion of that?

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