Critical Analysis of Supports for Pupils with Additional Needs and their School Leaders in Irish Primary Schools

Primary principals involved in the Irish education system will be aware of the repeated cuts and reductions in support for children with additional educational needs in the past number of years. This was often openly acknowledged as a fiscal measure e.g. in 2012, special education teaching resource hours were reduced by 15% per child. These “temporary” cuts have never been reversed and what followed was a series of adjustments to the system of allocation which has served as a smokescreen. 

All children have the right to be educated in their local schools. Notably, this has financial implications for the government as it is cheaper to educate a child with autism in their local school instead of transporting that child to a special school.  However, mainstream schools need to be properly resourced to do so and, if resources are not granted in a timely manner, the system is destined to fail. At the centre of this failure is the child.