Today, Tipperary primary schools, together with all primary schools nationally, were told how many Special Education Teaching (SET) hours would be allocated to their school next year.
According to the Department of Education and Youth almost one third of schools nationally received more hours. Almost half of schools nationally stayed at the same hours as last year, and approximately one fifth had their Special Education hours cut.
The factors that influence how many hours a school gets include enrolment figures, educational profile of literacy and numeracy needs and educational disadvantage.
The Department of Education and Youth has been criticised for the late publication of these hours. Educational groups have consistently pleaded for allocation information to be issued early in the year. Whereas this information was released in early February last year, it was not released this year until today, that is, the end of March.
In the absence of information about hours allocated, it is difficult for schools to predict how many full-time and part-time special education teachers they will have in the forthcoming year.
Moreover, the hours allocated are not always enough and to fight for the hours they need, schools must engage in an arduous review process. The review process takes a lot of time and the later it starts, the later and longer schools wait in limbo to find out if they will get the hours they require to support pupils with special education needs in their school.
Today’s late release of allocation information follows significant backlash from parents, school communities and unions with regards to cuts in SNA allocations next year. It only serves to add to growing frustrations and anger in relation to government policy and provision for special education across Ireland.
Leave a Reply