Father in protest at special needs cut

AN EIGHT-year-old boy and his father travelled to Dublin from their home in Co Meath yesterday to protest outside the Dáil about the loss of his “special needs” teacher.

Ciarán Armstrong from Enfield has attention deficit disorder and attends Newtown national school in the town, where he is one of a number of pupils who benefited from a special needs teacher.

His father, Leo Armstrong, said the school lost its dedicated special needs teacher following the education cuts in October which saw class sizes increase.

“Ciarán has problems with keeping his attention on things. He’s fidgety and his mind wanders. There are others in the school who used the special needs teacher.”

The children, he said, were in mainstream classes but came out at set times during the day for one-to-one teaching with the special needs teacher.

“But now since they increased the class sizes in October, that teacher is now enmeshed in the mainstream teaching and doesn’t have time to teach Ciarán and the others one-to-one,” he said.

Mr Armstrong was there yesterday with Ciarán and a friend of the family, carrying placards.

He said he did not expect that his protest would result in a U-turn on the education cuts, but said he hoped it would encourage other parents to come together as part of a bigger campaign against the reduction in special needs resources in schools.

“What we want are two things. One, that the class sizes are reduced and two, for the sake of the country and all the affected children, that special needs teachers be reinstated.”

He said the salaries that were paid to bank chief executives amounted to about €5 million and would pay for 120 special needs teachers.

“I feel very disappointed in this Government and naturally I am very worried for Ciarán that he is not getting out of his education what he should be. He is in second class but at times is put back in 1st class now as he can’t keep up the way he used to.”

Mr Armstrong said his partner and Ciarán’s mother, Collette Wrenn, was at home caring for their other son.