Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the attendees. My understanding is that we are trying to get better, fairer outcomes using existing resources for children with special educational needs. If that is the goal, that is very welcome. However, I have an initial question and perhaps Mr. Stack will have the answer to this. Does Mr. Stack know the number of teachers at second level who currently do not have any special educational needs training despite the fact that they have children in their classrooms with special educational needs? We are trying to implement a new model without a diagnosis or an assessment, without the little bit of teacher guidance a conversation with a psychologist would give, and with a majority, I suspect, of second-level teachers having absolutely no special educational needs training at all. This weekend, I spoke to a person involved in a school in Galway city. This school is considered to be a very high-performing school. It has 56 teachers none of whom have specialist training in autism, Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and so forth. What are we doing? Teachers are exhausted. One teacher described a child in his class who spends the whole day playing with a key-ring. The child is instructed to take out a piece of paper and put it on the board. The child needs someone to help him take out the piece of paper. He has to be prompted. This child does not have a special needs assistant, SNA. Teacher education and up-skilling is fundamental. I am sure Mr. Cottrell and Mr. Goff would accept this. Have we any figures on the matter? Today I have set about tabling a parliamentary question on that issue.

The model refers to 15% up-front resources and 85% based on the school educational profile. Where does a child with a very specific learning need, difficulty or syndrome - such as ADHD, autism or Asperger's syndrome - or challenging behaviour figure in that 85%? I have grave concerns about very demanding parents, although I understand why they are demanding, putting pressure on a school and their children getting more resources than the child with a very definite need who needs a lot of personal attention. Where do these children figure in this? The standardised test is taken into account. What else is? Syndromes exist and learning difficulties exist independent of social class. I have done research on this area myself. Ultimately, the question I am asking is how effective is the policy of inclusion if we do not have basic teacher training. I have a final question. With this new model, and I understand it is well-intentioned, are individual education plans, IEPs being wiped out? I think it is good - I was watching and listening to Mr. Stack on the monitor upstairs - that people are not waiting for a child to be diagnosed before doing something. However, what if the child's underlying difficulties are not understood by the teacher? That is a critical question.