Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Education Needs of Visually Impaired Students: Discussion

11:00 am

Mr. Brendan Doody:

I thank the Chair and the committee for the invitation to attend and for the opportunity to outline the range of supports available for blind and visually impaired children and young people in our school system. I am a principal officer within the Department’s special education section. I am accompanied by a number of my colleagues who work across a range of policy and operational issues in the special education sphere, namely Ms Corcoran, Mr. McLoughlin, Mr. Hanlon and Ms Burke.

I am also joined by Mr. Kenny.

As the committee will be aware, the Department of Education’s policy in respect of supporting children and young people with additional needs, including students who are blind or visually impaired, is very clear. Based on a child-centred approach to the provision of education, our role is to ensure schools are equipped appropriately to enable them to meet the needs of children and young people with additional needs such that they will be supported to access an education appropriate to those needs. This means children with additional needs should be supported to the greatest degree possible in mainstream settings, with additional teaching and care supports to allow them to achieve their potential. In circumstances where children with additional needs require more specialised interventions, we ensure access to special class or special school places. We have a small number of special classes and special school places dedicated to supporting blind and visually impaired students.

The vast majority of children with additional or special educational needs are educated in mainstream settings in the education system, with approximately 97% of all children in our schools attending mainstream settings. Critical to these students' educational success and their successful inclusion in mainstream settings are the classroom teachers, special education teachers and SNAs, who support and nurture each child to reach his or her full potential. Over 40,000 special education teachers and SNAs are employed in schools to work specifically to meet the learning and care needs of children and young people with additional needs.

This year, the Department of Education will spend in excess of €2.7 billion, or more than one quarter of the Department’s budget, supporting children with special educational needs. Budget 2025 builds on this investment, increasing funding in special education by a further 7%. This is the highest ever provision of funding by the State for special education and it allows for an additional 768 special education teachers and an additional 1,600 special needs assistants for our schools in 2025. It will also provide an additional 2,700 special educational places in our education system next year, building on existing capacity nationwide.

In line with the agenda for today’s meeting, I might take the opportunity to set out details of some of the specific supports that are available for children who are blind or have a visual impairment. For children with greater levels of need who are blind or have a visual impairment, there is a dedicated special school in Drumcondra, St. Joseph’s Primary School for Children with Visual Impairment, and two special classes attached to post-primary schools. This special school and the two classes support 63 students at present.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, employs 16 visiting teachers, VTs, supporting 1,379 children and young people who are blind or have a visual impairment. VTs are qualified teachers with particular skills and knowledge of the development and education of children with varying degrees of sight loss. They provide valuable early intervention support in the home to babies and their families. VTs work with young children on stimulating vision and providing support in the development of pre-Braille skills and mobility. They also advise schools and parents on the various supports available, thereby offering longitudinal support to students and their families from the time of initial referral through to the end of the post-primary education.

It is very important for children who have visual impairment to be able to access the curriculum in a way that best meets their needs. To help meet this need, the Department of Education funds reading services run by ChildVision, which the committee heard from earlier. This is a national service, working closely with the NCSE, schools and families, that provides access to educational material by transcription into a range of formats accessible to children with a visual impairment. These formats include Braille and large-print format schoolbooks. The Department also funds Bookshare Ireland, which has access to a large digital library of primary and post-primary books in a range of formats to suit the needs of the child. All these services are free to those children who need them.

As the committee will be aware, since 2017, the underpinning principle of the special education teaching, SET, allocation model is that it provides additional teaching resources to schools to enable them to provide for the identified educational needs of students without a requirement for diagnosis. This shift from a diagnosis-led to needs-based model ensures all children have access to the supports required to help them achieve in school. Schools are front-loaded with special education teaching resources and have the autonomy and flexibility to ensure students are assigned supports as they are required. Schools can approach the NCSE regarding their SET allocation, and if a school needs additional resources to support children with additional learning needs, this can be reviewed quickly by the NCSE.

In addition to the main supports, I wish to outline in summary detail the supports that are available for students who are blind or have a visual impairment through the typing tuition scheme. A total of 20 hours of typing tuition can be made available to schools to help to improve the typing skills of a student. Currently, 23 children are being supported under the scheme. The Department also has an assistive technology scheme, which provides technological support to children who need this for accessing the curriculum. This includes Braille and equipment to support students who are blind or have a visual impairment, such as Braille embossers, magnifiers, touchscreen laptops, iPads, and software such as Braille translation and screen reading. The Department increased its funding for this scheme by €2 million in 2023 and is fully committed to providing a range of technological supports to support students who are blind or have a visual impairment. The concept of universal design now underpins all of the Department's technical guidelines on the design and build of new schools and school extensions. The accessibility and usability of a building is a key determinant of a quality learning environment. Additional provisions are also made in the design and build of new classrooms which are specifically to support students who are blind or have a visual impairment.

We continue to work hard to ensure we are providing a supportive, inclusive education system for all children, especially children with additional needs. While significant progress has been made across a range of fronts, we are always aware of the challenges faced by individual children and their families and we are continuing to work with the NCSE and all of the education stakeholders to address issues as they come to light. It is important for the Department and the NCSE to keep abreast of the latest research and developments internationally on how best to support students who are blind or have a visual impairment. This is something we are very aware of through the research function in the NCSE and through the Department’s representation on various EU special education groups.

I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to outline in summary detail some of the supports available for students who are blind or have a visual impairment. My colleagues and I look forward to engaging with committee members and providing more details in relation to any questions that members might have.

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