To tamper with the allocation of special needs assistants in the middle of the school year was unfair, unacceptable, and totally disruptive to the running of a school, Beverley Flynn TD told the Oireachtas Committee on Education on Thursday last.
Deputy Flynn told the hearing that it would be a farce to put schools such as St Anthony's Special School in Castlebar through an appeals process which would see an “in-house” committee review the decisions of its own officials.
She said she was deeply disappointed for the parents and pupils of St Anthony's at a recommendation that three SNA posts would be lost at the school.
“This is something we cannot and will not accept,” she said, and she questioned the basis on which such a decision was reached in the first place.
“I want to know what has changed between September 2009, when the school's full complement of SNAs was confirmed as being appropriate to the school needs, and February 2010, when it was suddenly decided to scale back the number of SNA posts by three,” Dep Flynn asked.
Describing the decision to abolish SNA posts in the middle of the school year as illogical and unprecedented, she said the entire education community of County Mayo was shocked at the threat to St Anthony's Special School.
“I would also question why the opinions of the school principal, who best knows the needs as well as the capabilities of each child, was not given greater weight when the evaluation was being made,” she said.
Dep Flynn said that next September will see a significant enrolment at St Anthony's, which in turn will create the need for additional SNAs at the school. “Surely that is the time when new pupils are being assessed, that the question of SNA allocations for the coming year should be decided,” she added.
As a result of last week's meeting of the Oireachtas Committee, the Department of Education has been asked for a formal written response to the issues raised. A further meeting of the committee will then be held to consider the response. In the meantime, St Anthony's School is to initiate an appeals procedure against the ruling of the NCSE, the body which recommended the cuts in SNA numbers.
The school has five working days to signal its intent to appeal, and then has 10 working days to submit the formal appeals forms. The appeal will then be processed within 20 working days and the decision communicated to the school.
Dep Flynn said that it was likely that up to 80 schools would be making appeals against decisions made by the NCSE to reduce the number of SNAs.
“I am hopeful that by the time the enrolment process for the coming school year is under way, the question of SNA posts at St Anthony's School will have been resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned,” she said.
