Ms Deirdre Matthews:

It would need to come with a corresponding increase in funding to the education Department and acknowledgement of the operational, management and administrative supports that are needed. Also, let us not forget the infrastructure. We have a lot of very old schools. We are looking at maximising capacity in school buildings in order to open special classes. Schools are creating offices out of what were previously cupboards. I created two offices out of what had been storage cupboards. It is not a simple task. That is why I am calling for the independent research. The infrastructural requirements to do this well are significant, so we need to be careful about rushing the roll-out of this programme. It is getting embedded at primary. Let us pause, look at it independently and then plan.