Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 June 2004

Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Bill 2003: Second Stage.

 

11:00 am

Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

There is a determination, and this is very evident in the past number of years, to bring this service to the centre and to the heart of the education service in general. It was very much on the periphery. It was the case of a nod and a wink and a sometimes best forgotten service. Now it is being brought rapidly to the centre of the education service and that is to be greatly welcomed.

In regard to three or four key developments that have taken place recently, in 1998 a programme of funding was put in place to significantly enhance the level and the quality of the service. It started with a decision to give all primary school children automatic entitlement to a response to their needs and this was a defining moment in Government education policy. A rapid expansion in the level and quality of professionals followed, for example the number of special resource teachers in schools increased from 104 to in excess of 2,000. The number of special needs assistants went from a few hundred to approximately 5,500. The learning support teacher service was extended to every primary and post-primary school in the country. There are more than 1,500 learning support teachers employed in education. The expansion of the service through access to a variety of support services has made the system more responsive to the various levels and types of need. The significant reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio over that period within mainstream schooling, special classes and across special schools has further enhanced the quality of the response.

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