GOVERNMENT PROTECT VULNERABLE BY SLASHING SPECIAL NEEDS ASSISTANTS
Issued : Thursday 21 January, 2010
The reports of Government plans to axe hundreds of Special Needs Assistant posts is worrying in the extreme. This development is a slap in the face to the thousands of children who rely on SNAs in classrooms around the country.
Any reduction in SNA numbers means that not only will these children themselves suffer, but so too will their classmates as a further burden will be placed on the classroom teachers. Teachers cannot be expected to have all the skills required to provide for a child with special needs and in this regard, they need whatever support they can get.
The trend in recent years has been to accommodate children with learning disabilities in mainstream schools, with much of the old 'special school' infrastructure being dismantled. This is something that Labour has very much welcomed, but if the replacement infrastructure in mainstream schools is itself now being dismantled, that means that these children are being left high and dry. Do we really want to revert to a situation where children with special needs are left at the back of the classroom, playing with toys all day long?
Already there is a value for money review underway with regard to this scheme, and giving hundreds of SNAs the sack at this stage, bears all the hallmarks of a cynical pre-emptive strike. In addition, when this happens in the middle of an academic year, it is inevitable that serious disruption will result.
This is what passes for ‘protecting the most vulnerable’ in the eyes of Fianna Fail and their Green Party mudguards. Services for children with special needs have come under sustained attack in recent years. Many SNA positions have already been scrapped over the last two years, and there is simply no further scope for trimming back numbers.
Ending vital services for these children is inexplicable, but rolling back on the significant progress that has been made in this regard in recent times, is unforgivable
