The Department of Education has begun an audit of special-needs resources in primary schools in a move that could result in a reduction in the number of special-needs assistants in classrooms.
A senior source in the Department of Education and Science told The Irish Times yesterday that the audit has been prompted by the belief that up to 30 per cent of special-needs assistants in primary schools may be in excess of requirements.
The audit, which started this week, is under way as nearly 10,000 students at primary and secondary level await news on their applications for special-needs resources.
Last night the Department announced that it was developing a "weighted" system of allocation of special-needs resources to schools so that applications regarding individual pupils would no longer be required.
Currently, a backlog of 5,000 primary schoolchildren are awaiting assessment of their applications, and most wait two years before they get resources.
At second-level, a significant number of the 5,000 new applications for special-needs resources have not yet been responded to, according to Mr George O'Callaghan, of the Joint Managerial Body.
The INTO and the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) have dismissed the Department's figure of 30 per cent of special-needs assistants as being surplus to requirements.
"Anyone who has spent any time in a primary school would find that figure extremely difficult to believe," said Mr Sean Cottrell, director of the IPPN.
The INTO said that it would "firmly resist" any attempt to cut back resources.
Mr John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, said that in view of the fact that there were nearly 5,000 applications for special-needs resources in primary schools still to be processed, and that the census has only begun, it was premature to take the view that some resources were unnecessary. "The current system is overly bureaucratic and inflexible, and clearly is not meeting the needs of large numbers of children," said Mr Carr.
Mr O'Callaghan said: "Schools are taking in special-needs pupils but we have not got the resources to work with them."
He said at second-level many school principals were anxiously waiting for responses to applications made last March.
The Department has decided to stop basing the allocation of resources on individual assessments of children.
Instead it intends to give schools a quota of special-needs assistants, teachers and resource teachers.
The Department said last night that it would be engaging in discussions with the education partners with a view to developing a weighted system of allocations for special-needs teaching resources with effect from the 2004/2005 school year.
This would involve an annual allocation being made to schools based on predicted incidence of special educational needs within different size school populations.