The return of special education is being “unfairly handled” according to one local school principal.
It comes as key talks between teaching unions and the Department of Education won’t resume until Monday, despite calls for them to proceed this weekend.
Seán Ó hArgáin is the principal of Gaelscoil Osraí in Kilkenny, where about 20 of the 450 students fall under the ‘school support plus’ category and require special education urgently, while a further 30 to 40 of them need less frequent assistance, but still have learning difficulties.
He says a solution desperately needs to be found to help all these children;
“In terms of special education, there has been a really difficult situation over the last ten days. It’s been very unfairly handled I think by the Department of Education and by the Minister in particular” he told KCLR News. “I really hope that we can have a focussed set of negotiations now, in a calm atmosphere between the Department and our union representatives, to ensure that we can get some element of face-to-face learning back for children with additional educational needs.”
Meanwhile, Seán says the news that mainstream schools could remain shut for another two months is not surprising.
Taoiseach Michael Martin has told RTE that not all students will be back in school before St Patrick’s Day.
Principal Ó hArgáin says everyone wants to get back in the classroom, but that should only happen once it’s safe;
“I don’t think anybody’s very surprised with the news that it’s likely we will be closed for a considerable period of time” he explains. “It’s not where we want to be. It’s not the type of learning we were trained to do as teachers. We would far prefer to have the children in front of us in classrooms, but we have to play our part in protecting public health for all generations, especially with the high rates of transmission and the impact of the new strain of the virus.”
