“Last week’s report that the allocation of 10,000 special needs assistants (SNAs ) to schools throughout the country is to be 'reviewed' is worrying for all of us in Kilkenny,” stated County Kilkenny VEC chairperson Councillor Marie Fitzpatrick.
She said we can be sure that no ‘review’ is going to increase the number of SNAs so it would appear that the Government is attempting to soften us up for another round of cuts which will impact on children with special needs.
Any reduction in the SNA numbers will mean 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 who are already under huge pressure. Teachers cannot be expected to have all the skills required to provide for a child with special needs and 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 I 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? Services for children with special needs have come under sustained attack in recent years. Many of these special needs assistant positions have already been scrapped over the last two years, and there is simply no further scope for trimming back numbers.
”Rolling back on the significant progress that has been made in Kilkenny in recent times, would be unforgivable,” she concluded.
