A new model for the allocation of special education teaching resources to both primary and secondary schools will be introduced from September, local Independent Minister Denis Naughten has confirmed.
This new model will be a fairer and better way to allocate resources to support children with special educational needs and will include an additional 900 teaching posts.
“As a result, up to 1,000 schools will receive additional allocations where the new model indicates additional need and, most importantly, no school will receive less resources than they received in the 2016/17 school year,” stated Minister Naughten. He continued: “This will be a co-ordinated approach to the allocation of special needs resources which is both extremely positive and long overdue”.
The new model has been devised by a working group established by the National Council for Special Education and further developed by the Department of Education and Skills in close collaboration with parents, teachers, disability representatives, and other stakeholders.
Teachers will be allocated to schools on the basis of the profiled educational needs of each school which will end the unfairness in the current system, whereby many parents are unable to access the assessments needed to qualify for educational resources.
It will also allow schools to allocate resources to pupils taking into account their individual learning needs rather than requiring a particular diagnosis of disability.
