INTO conference: The Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill will exclude many children from special education provision, the Irish National Teachers Organisation has warned.
The INTO would do all in its power to prevent cutbacks in special needs education, Mr John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, told the organisation's annual primary principals conference in Dundalk on Saturday.
Anger at threatened cutbacks in the provision of education for children with special needs dominated the conference. Principals were also worried that any reduction in resources in schools might result "in a flood of litigation against schools."
Mr Carr said: "The INTO will totally and utterly oppose any attempt to cut back on commitments to special education."
The union had had talks with the Department of Education and Science on trust and anyone who attempted to break the trust would "pay a very high price indeed".
Mr Carr was responding to reports in The Irish Times that the number of special needs assistants could be cut and that the National Educational Psychology Service (NEPS) would not be getting its full complement of staff because of budget considerations.
Principals told the conference that as resources stood, schools did not have the capacity to meet the demands of the Bill.
"In the area of special education," Mr Carr said, "the INTO fought for resources on behalf of children. Having fought for resource teachers, special needs assistants and the establishment of NEPS, the INTO would totally oppose any cutbacks."
But at the same time, principals were overwhelmed by the incessant "bureaucratic nightmare" created by Department demands for paper work.
The INTO wanted schools to be directly supplied with resources, so that each individual child no longer must apply to the Department , Mr Carr said. This was not the same as diminishing services.
When schools were given resources, the Department would have to take account for disadvantage, the higher incidence of special needs among boys and the needs of small schools.
The Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill had workload implications for principal teachers, he added. While the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools could enrich the school community, constraints on time and resources had "hindered the development of whole school approaches to inclusion".
He also said that guidance teachers had little guidance from inspectors and others. "The lack of structure has allowed resource teachers to approach the role creatively, but has also led to feelings of isolation and lack of direction for teachers themselves," Mr Carr said.
The INTO would like to see the Irish model following the example of Britain, the US, Canada and Australia where resource teaching focused on assisting the class teacher to support the child with special needs in the classroom.
"In Ireland," Mr Carr said, "most resource teachers work with children on a one-to-one or small group basis. Top class in service education for teachers must be a priority in special needs provision."