A survey of more than 350 primary school principals throughout Ireland has found that children with additional needs are receiving an average of 21% fewer hours of specialised learning support than they were fifteen years ago.
The study which was compiled by the National Principal’s Forum set out to compare the number of hours that schools would have been afforded in 2007 when the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) used a different algorithm for calculating hours to the number of hours schools receive in 2022 using the “SET Allocation Model” which was designed to be a “better and more equitable way”.
While it has long been suspected by principals that the new model was simply another cut by stealth from the NCSE, the survey findings highlight the deep cracks in the system for children with additional needs. It found that 84% of principals have reported an increase in pupils with additional needs in the past 4 years. It also found that eight out of ten principals recommend that the NCSE requires a full review with a new child-centred system of allocating resources which would ensure that every child with additional needs receives the support they need in the most appropriate setting.
Allocations for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), announced earlier this week were frozen for a third year in a row, representing another cut by stealth. This week the Department of Education announced 1,100 new SNA posts yet their own data shows that fewer than 100 primary schools have received extra mainstream hours with less than 500 posts allocated nationwide, the majority in new Special Classes. While there is a mechanism for schools to appeal their allocation, only 8% of schools who appeal with mountains of paperwork are successful.
According to the National Principals’ Forum, principals believe that students should have access to support for whatever needs are recommended by an educational psychologist and that the current system of “frontloading supports” does not take the needs of the individual children into consideration.
Speaking of the survey, Simon Lewis, National Principal’s Forum said, “Unfortunately, these figures will come as no surprise to school leaders and families of children with additional needs. This is the first time that there has been a widespread effort to calculate exactly how bad the situation is and it is the same right across the country with four out of five primary schools reporting cuts to their supports over the past fifteen years with little to change forthcoming.”
“Despite government spin, these findings make it abundantly clear that the claim from the Minister for Education of “being on the side of children with additional needs” is a hollow one. Principals up and down the country are in agreement that the current system is failing schools, failing children with additional needs and failing society and the Ministers responsible, both Norma Foley and Josepha Madigan, need to listen to school leaders on the ground if real and meaningful improvements are to happen.”
This year was to see the roll out of a “Frontloading Model of Special Needs Assistants” which would assign a number of SNAs per school based on an algorithm. According to FORSA trade union, it was paused for a third year in a row because “it can’t be certain that the effect on school allocations would meet the needs of students.” In a survey of principals in 2021, only 9% of principals believe the model is a good idea.
Mr. Lewis concluded, “Algorithms do not work where real people are affected. If positive change is to happen, school principals need to be part of the decision making progress. Until then, the children of Ireland are losing out and the role of the principal in primary schools will continue to become untenable.”
The National Principals’ Forum (NPF) is an entirely voluntary, registered grassroots lobby group of over 1,200 practicing Primary School Principal Teachers, established in May 2018. They say they seek “to work with the Minister for Education, Management Bodies and Representative Bodies to affect urgent changes needed to sustain teachers in their roles as school leaders.”