Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Every child has a constitutional right to an education and everyone agrees that no child should be left behind. Last month, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, published its report, An Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Society, which shows a majority of those who engaged with the consultation agreed that children, even those with special educational needs, should be educated in the same school as others. However, they expressed fears about supports in mainstream schools for students with complex needs. The recalculation of allocation for special education teachers does nothing but compound that fear. Some 76.4% of those who engaged in the National Principals Forum survey said that primary school allocations next year would be wholly inadequate and 37% of principals reported a decrease in their allocation despite evidence that classrooms have a higher number of children with additional needs than ever before. The Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, believes that for children with multiple needs, these allocations are fundamentally flawed and that the over-emphasis on literacy and numeracy fails to take into account those multiple needs and is in effect counterproductive to the excellent work teachers do to improve literacy and numeracy as it may result in decreased allocations. Inclusion Ireland has said that the decision to remove complex needs will make an already broken system even less accessible for children. AsIAm has said that this change will impact on the most vulnerable children in schools who require the highest levels of support and they risk receiving less support this September as a result of these changes. Ultimately, it will push more students from mainstream education into special schools or special classes, re-enforcing the words of those who took part in the consultation with the NCSE.

Will the Minister of State please review this decision? It is not only those of us on this side of the House who are saying there is a problem. It is groups who are involved in the lives of the children who are most impacted by this decision who are saying it. Parents are saying it. Schools are saying it. Everyone is saying it. I ask the Minister of State today to review the decision.

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