Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 21, between lines 43 and 44 to insert the following:

"(g) to ensure that teachers are trained to the highest international standards in special educational needs;".

The purpose of the amendment is to ensure teachers are trained to the highest international standards in special educational needs. To illustrate the current position in this regard, I will cite a letter from a school principal to which I referred on a previous occasion when the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, was present. It highlights that, despite their best intentions and good will, the onus placed on teachers to deliver best quality education to children identified in schools as having special educational needs creates fear among many teachers delivering special needs. It states:

Ulick, what can a principal do when teachers come in tears to you because they perceive themselves as failing the Special Needs child? I know these teachers are doing an excellent job, but I can acknowledge their perception they have absolutely no training for dealing with children [with special needs].

When one considers that this is replicated in practically every primary school and secondary level school, it is clear we have a serious problem. Moreover, the current annual throughput of newly qualified special needs teachers is only 35.

The Department must provide much more extensive inservice training for teachers. This cannot be done on the cheap, as has been the case with the introduction of various new subjects to the curriculum in national and secondary schools. The approach taken in the past has created reluctance among many teachers to participate in inservice training. The Department must give a clear indication of a sea change in its approach to retraining, which has been inadequate.

Many teachers are growing old and more than 20% of them will leave the system in the next five years. Apart from their lack of experience, few new teachers entering the profession will have training in special educational needs, whereas the number of students identified as having special needs and entering mainstream education will increase. With the level of need increasing on two fronts, it is vital the Department address the urgent need for adequate and acceptable inservice training.

One of the problems with developing inservice training is the unwillingness by some parents to accommodate it. One hears in the media, on radio programmes, for example, parents complaining that a teacher has been absent from school for several days because he or she is in training. A price must be paid. School managers, principals and boards of management face great difficulty organising inservice training but the nettle must be grasped and all possible measures taken to ensure we have a sufficient number of trained teachers to meet the requirements of the legislation. This will not be easy while one has snipers in the media and among parents. While I have the greatest of respect for the right of parents to get the best for their children, some of them do not think beyond their own requirements.

Funding, the main problem, is the responsibility of the Minister for Finance who must realise that proper inservice training for teachers has never been adequately resourced.