The Minister for Education yesterday announced the introduction of measures to maintain the level of resource teachers for children with special educational needs at 2012/2013 levels. The Minister has secured cabinet agreement to release 500 additional special needs teaching posts to cope with the 12% surge in applications from schools. Having been in contact with both parents and schools about the potential implications of the proposed reductions, it’s clear that this is a very welcome decision.

A working group will also be established to examine the reasons for this 12% increase in demand and to develop a new model for allocating resource teachers to schools from 2013/2014. This group is due to report in September and will include both parents and special needs advocates. This is the third year in a row that the Government has maintained spending on special needs education at €1.3billion and that the number of Special Needs Assistants and Resource Teachers has been protected.