*Mary Flanagan, Noel Murphy Joe O’Riordan and Jim Collins. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
PRINCIPALS in East Clare have come together issuing a letter to the Minister for Education, Norma Foley (FF) expressing their dismay and concern with proposed changes to the special education training model.
A collective letter on behalf of fourteen schools in Clare, thirteen of which are in East Clare and the other from Lissycasey NS has been sent to Minister Foley criticising the “lack of empathy, judgement and insight to the needs of pupils within the educational system”.
Clare TDs, Cathal Crowe (FF) and Michael McNamara (IND) plus Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) have met with representatives of the fourteen schools to discuss the new SET allocation model which is due to come into effect in September.
Lakyle NS, Inis Cealtra NS, Flagmount NS, Raheen Wood, Dromindoora NS, Scariff NS, Clooney NS, Bodyke NS, Tuamgraney NS, Parteen NS, O’Callaghans Mills NS, Feakle NS and Ogonnelloe NS have signed the letter along with Lissycasey NS. The letter is signed by Mary Flanagan, Joe O’Riordan, Louise Kelly, Alan Tuohy, Róisin Reilly, Liam Quirke, Marie Minogue, Susan Neylon, Marie Moroney, Miriam Smyth, Sharon Brady, Gráinne Conlon, Michelle Kelly, Michelle O’Loughlin, Siobhán Quinlivan, Clare Jones, Sinéad Frost, Marion Mahon, Olivia Horkan, Anne O’Malley.
Officials in the Department have been implored by the principals to redesign the SET allocation model “and stop the discrimination by ignoring the individual needs of vulnerable pupils within mainstream schools and instead to provide the necessary supports and investment to children so that they can thrive in an inclusive educational journey”.
They have requested the model be re-drafted to “better suit the needs of pupils” similar to the pre-2017 allocation model.
On Friday of last week, a private secretary in the Department of Education acknowledged the correspondence but responded that “this matter is more appropriate to the Minister’s colleague, Ms. Josepha Madigan TD, Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion, and I have referred your correspondence to her office for direct reply”.
Penning the letter stemmed from the frustration on the “very difficult conversations” that principals will have to have with parents in the coming months. This will include informing parents that schools do not have the hours to provide support to their child. “As schools we wanted to get ahead of it and hold the Minister accountable but inform parents of the detrimental impact this new model has on their children and their academic achievements and outcomes in education”.
Under the new model, the new pillar has been streamlined to three criteria instead of five with complex educational needs no longer considered as a factor in the allocation of special education teaching hours.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Michelle Kelly an SET teacher in Lissycasey warned that under the new model the majority of SET hours will now be based on results from standardised tests in second, fourth and sixth class. “You have students in schools for four years before they sit a test, the score of that test in second class won’t impact on anything for another year and a half. If you have a child coming into school with dyslexia or dyslexic traits, they’ll struggle to first class and they won’t sit an assessment until second class so they may not be recognised on a system until fourth class and they won’t be recognised as eligible for support hours”.
For some students having to wait until fourth class to receive SET will be too late. “We’re held accountable to provide early intervention which means junior or senior infants, it’s not too late, they would have a better opportunity if SET was provided in senior infants,” Michelle said.,
She continued, “The Department claims the allocation is fair and is done with the best data they can get but there are tests that students can do and students do right up from junior infants that can be counted for test scores”. The Kilmurry McMahon native felt the Department could secure wide scale data scores from schools and it would not be a labour intensive process.
“They also claimed in the new model that they had no accurate sources of information of children diagnosed with complex needs, each child is registered on a system called pupil online database, every child has to be registered on that to be registered as a student in a school. Schools could input information on diagnosed disabilities or learning needs on the system and it could be available to Department if they wanted to get it, our concern is the Dept of Education in rolling this out they have not taken wider view of students in our schools,” Michelle added.
This approach from the Department was labelled as “very presumptive” by Ms Kelly. The fallout from COVID has not been recognised with the increase in motor, speech and language difficulties encountered by students.
Waiting lists for occupation language therapy has increased within the HSE since COVID, the new model will not alleviate this, Ms Kelly flagged. “We could say to a parent that they have concerns on their child on their speech and language or coordination, that parent will then go to a GP and look for referral but the child could be three or four years before they are seen. Within CAMHS, there are students with emotional difficulties or students visibly distressed but because they are not self-harming or harming others CAMHS say they are not severe enough to be seen or on their books, it is kicking the can down the line. If they got early intervention it could save a lot of problems. Students who have difficulties who we assist with in primary school, they have a better chance of achieving in primary and post-primary, the skills we provide them with in primary school set them up to be independent in later life”.
On the response from the Department of Education, Michelle said it was “very neglectful”. She stated, “it shows a contempt to not alone the teachers in the school but the parents and students of our schools. There is a lack of morality in this, as teachers we have a moral obligation to the students we teach to provide them with the opportunities, we put an awful lot of stress to do it but for the best outcomes of the students, every child is a person and is valuable, we give our time and energy to them. When we are not given the manpower to do it, we are failing the students in front of us, it is a failure not by us but by the people supposed to supporting us”.
“All we’re asking for is that this model is not implemented, that they go back into consultation and look at the information that they can gather from schools, student information and profiles are available to them on the primary online database system. The majority of schools do standardised tests from juniors to sixth, that information can be got from schools easily. There is a lot more information that the Department can get from schools to give a better allocation model than there is, even basing decision on diagnosis made and a second result isn’t enough. You’ve students with a lot of needs that can be assessed arising from the fallout of COVID, family life can also be a cause for students, if a student has a sick family member or is bereaved of an immediate member or if there is a break-up going on in the home, they do need support in times of crisis. We’re more than teachers, we’re social workers, carers, OTs, we’re everything and we don’t have the resources or manpower to do it”.
