Special needs enrolment should be taken seriously, writes BRIAN MOONEY

ONE OF my most harrowing childhood memories is the daily beating handed out by a teacher to a special needs child for his “failure’’ to deliver top-class homework.

How many other special needs students received similar treatment at the hands of frustrated teachers, who didn’t have the skills to deal with such vulnerable children in the 1970s?

Thankfully, today we have a far greater understanding of the wide range of diagnosed special needs. One of the great achievements of our education system in the past decade has been the increase in special needs funding.

As the guidance counsellor in Oatlands College, a non-fee- paying second-level school in south Dublin, I have dealt with a growing number of students presenting psychologists reports on entry. These reports indicated the diagnosed condition of the student, and the supports he or she would require during his second-level school years.

My role was to forward these reports to the special education needs organiser for my school, who assess the report according to the criteria laid down by the Department of Education and Science, and allocate resources accordingly.

In my experience at Oatlands, there has never been any issue regarding the acceptance of a child with special needs. Provided a student is capable of benefiting from the mainstream second- level curriculum, they are welcome to apply and will be accepted into the school. My school has an admissions policy that is fair, open and transparent.

However, over the years I have become increasingly aware that some special needs students applied to Oatlands after being turned away elsewhere. The shocking reality is that some schools deliberately refuse to enrol special needs kids. Nothing is put in writing, but the parents are told to move their child to another school that might suit them better.

It was concern about this behaviour that prompted the Department of Education to audit the admissions policies of schools three years ago. Astonishingly, this audit specifically excluded fee-paying schools.

The latest figures for special needs provision in Dublin schools, published in today’s Irish Times, underline the restrictive admission policies of some. The figures reveal that there are less than half the number of special needs children in fee-paying schools (one teacher for every 306 pupils) than in non-fee-paying schools (one teacher per 148 pupils).

As disability is no respecter of class or income level, it is clear that many fee-paying schools are not taking their fair share of children with special needs.

Within both the fee-paying and non-fee-paying sector, there are clear discrepancies between the proportions of special needs children who gain admission to particular schools. Some small level of difference within these discrepancies can be statistically explained, but others are due to policy decisions.

How is it, for instance, that certain Dublin fee-paying schools, including some of the best-known and venerable institutions, have such a small ratio of special needs students? Three of Dublin’s top schools, for example, have more than 600 students and yet each has so few students with special needs that they have an allocation of less than one special needs teacher.

It’s time the Department of Education and Science ensured that all schools in receipt of State funding operate transparent and inclusive admission policies.

Brian Mooney is a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors