Castlebar school appeals ‘cruel’ cuts

Castlebar school appeals ‘cruel’ cuts


Edwin McGreal

THE Board of Management of St Anthony’s Special School in Castlebar is to appeal the decision to axe three Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) from the school during the Easter Holidays.
The cut of three of the school’s 13 SNAs was made after an inspection by an officer of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) but the decision was met with anger and resistance by the school.
And in a further twist, local Government TD Beverley Flynn has described the decision as ‘unfair and disruptive’.
That came at last Thursday’s Oireachtas Committee on Education meeting at which St Anthony’s Principal Fiona Byrnes spoke.
The decision of the school to appeal the cuts comes hot on the heels of last week’s decision from a number of parents of students of the school to independently appeal the cuts.
“To tamper with the allocation of special needs assistants in the middle of the school year was unfair, unacceptable, and totally disruptive to the running of a school,” Beverley Flynn told the Oireachtas Committee.
Deputy Flynn also agreed with Fiona Byrnes that it would be farcical to put the school through an ‘in-house’ appeals review in the NCSE, before questioning how such a decision was arrived at in the first place.
"I want to know what has changed between September, 2009, when the school's full complement of SNAs was confirmed as being appropriate to the school needs, and February, 2010, when it was suddenly decided to scale back the number of SNA posts by three,” she added.
"I would also question why the opinions of the school principal, who best knows the needs as well as the capabilities of each child, was not given greater weight when the evaluation was being made," she said.
As a result of last week's meeting, the Department of Education has been asked for a formal written response to the issues raised. A further meeting of the committee will then be held to consider the response.