by Damian Dowds, Inishowen Independent
A NUMBER of people will lose their jobs following
the conclusion of a review process conducted by the
National Council for Special Education into the
provision of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) in
Inishowen schools. Some staff have already left
their employment with others are expected to finish
up at midterm break later this month.
Hardest hit is Scoil Íosagáin in Buncrana which
loses five of its 31 SNAs while other schools,
including St Patrick’s Boys School in Carn, St
Aengus NS Bridgend, Scoil Eoghain in Moville and
Scoil Colmcille in Newtown will also lose staff.
Controversy erupted in June last year when swingeing
cuts in the number of SNAs in local schools were
proposed and parents and schools had no leave of
appeal.
Local parents came together to form the Special
Needs Access Action Group to oppose the cuts and
they were granted a reprieve in August when the
National Council for Special Education (NCSE) said
that staffing levels would be maintained for the new
school year pending a review.
Local primary schools were informed of the outcome
of the review by letter last week, while secondary
schools were informed a fortnight ago.
“There’s a reduction in the overall number of SNAs,
but that was to be expected,” said Gerry McGeehan,
principal at Scoil Eoghain in Moville and a member
of the INTO’s central executive. “The Government
says it isn’t cutting back on special needs
education, but that isn’t the case here.”
“Naturally, some people will be disappointed with
the outcome, and we will be looking into a number of
those cases,” McGeehan continued. “This was the
first such review ever done by the NCSE and we want
to see a proper mechanism put in for future
reviews.”
“We’re better off now than we were last June,” said
SNAAG spokeswoman Elaine Clarke, whose son retained
his Special Needs Assistant. “The success of our
campaign can be seen in the NCSE admitting that it
was wrong in certain cases. We’ve managed to retain
several SNAs that were listed to be cut, so it’s
been worth it.”
Both McGeehan and Clarke said they were happy with
the professionalism and fairness with which the NESC
conducted the review. “Chief executive Pat Curtin
said he would meet with us again if necessary so we
hope he keeps his word because a number of parents
and schools aren’t happy with some of the outcomes,”
Clarke said. |
