Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The recently published NCSE policy document, which is called An Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Society, details a level of research that was done to try to move the country towards a more inclusive education system in the future, where all children with mild general learning disabilities, MGLD, and other disabilities will be catered for in their own local school and only children with the most complex needs will attend special schools. This is a laudable notion. The document cites countries in which this has worked, such as Canada, Portugal and the UK. For this to be a success, a framework will need to be put in place through which all mainstream schools are given the resources to be able to cater for these students with success and dignity. This possibly needs a 20-year plan,and in Portugal the plan is for 30 years, but the Department seems to have other ideas.

I refer in particular to a school in Crumlin, Scoil Eoin, which recently had a meeting with the Department. At this meeting, the Department informed the school that it plans to implement this within four years. It will open 2,000 special classes in post-primary schools and all the mild children will be accommodated there. Scoil Eoin will therefore be forced to change its designation and will only cater to the most complex cases. The fear is that the school will open these classes with no resources and the MGLD children will drop out. This is will not be inclusion on any level. There is also no framework in place for this to happen and no plan to help it succeed. The MGLD special schools’ principals’ group is of the same view, and thinks it is vital that mainstream primary and post-primary schools, as well as other stakeholders, are made aware of this plan and that the value of schools, such as their own, are known and recognised. They feel extremely isolated at present. They feel the Department is dealing with them in an underhand and forceful way. Whatever plan the NCSE has, it must do it in collaboration with the existing schools and put a framework in place to make it a success. Doing it in such a ham-fisted and forceful manner will not bring anybody on board.

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