INTO CONFERENCE:THE DECISION by Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe to abolish over 120 special classes for children with mild learning needs was unanimously condemned by INTO delegates yesterday.
Aileen Corboy said her school, St Eithne’s Raheny, Dublin was one of those where special classes faced abolition.
Ms Corboy told delegates that the support available in mainstream classes was inadequate to meet the educational, emotional and social needs of the seven pupils in the special class.
It was glaringly obvious that these pupils would not make progress in mainstream classes, she added.
Executive member Donal O’Donoghue said that the unilateral decision by the Minister was a disgrace.
Mr O’Donoghue accused Mr O’Keeffe of disbanding these classes at the stroke of a pen – with no warning and no negotiation in a manner which would leave the children, their parents and their families “high and dry’’.
Society, he said, was judged by how its treats its most vulnerable members.
Mr O’Donoghue said that he was ashamed and angry about the manner in which these children were being treated.
These children, he said, were making real progress in special classes but they would now be added to overcrowded mainstream classes.
Mr O’Donoghue also rejected claims by the Minister that most of the pupils in question would gain additional resources or special needs support. The reality was that most of the children in question would not qualify and would not be able to access this support, Mr O’Donoghue claimed.
Delegates also heard how children had travelled miles to gain access to special classes, but the progress that they were making would now be endangered.
The move to cut the special needs classes would yield less than €7 million in annual savings for the department from a total budget of €9 billion.
The INTO has said that the move was made purely on financial grounds.
The Minister has said that the classes were cut due to the falling numbers of pupils with special needs in the classes.
In the case of classes for mild general learning disability, a minimum of nine pupils are required to retain a teaching post.
Mr O’Keeffe said that 50 of the schools earmarked had four pupils or less in their special needs class.
Greg Gilligan from Birr, Co Offaly said that parents faced a very uncertain school year when the cuts in special classes were implemented from September.
“These children will be removed from a highly structured and specialised learning environment and placed in mainstream classes which are now even more crowded. They are being asked to cope with a system that experts agree is beyond their capability,” he said. Mr Gilligan added that the Minister had decided that he knew best without discussion with experts in the area.
Adrienne Nolan from Dublin northeast explained how there are two learning support teachers in her school with a workload of 67 pupils. “I know I cannot support these children in the way their class teacher did,” she said.
Martin Stynes from Dublin city north called on the Minister to reverse the decision. “Show some empathy or suffer public shame,” he said.
