Massive reform not supported by massive resources

'Exactly what part of 'swinging out of the lampshades' do you not understand?" The question, spoken with restrained frustration, came from someone who had regularly attempted to access help for students, and found his efforts thwarted.

The Department of Education and Science (DES) representative at whom the question was aimed took a deep breath and gamely attempted to answer. Although no-one was expecting miraculous solutions to problems, there was a tangible sense of appreciation from the audience that DES representatives were willing to be there at all.

As a result of writing about special educational needs some weeks ago, I was invited to attend a conference on the issue hosted by the Joint Managerial Body (JMB). It might surprise some people not involved in education to hear that it was packed with principals, deputy principals, learning-support and special-needs teachers, all of them giving up their Saturday voluntarily. There were two talks in the morning, the first by Pat Curtin, chief executive officer of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), and the second by the always excellent Dr Dympna Glendenning, on the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act (EPSEN) 2005. After lunch, there were two workshops, one where representatives from the NCSE and the DES responded to questions, and another where people working in the Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath spoke about how they have tackled special-needs education in their own school.

Ireland is attempting to do in a few years what other countries have been working on for 20 or 30 years. If it were not for the gallant efforts of Kathy Sinnott and other parents who were willing to go to court to vindicate their children's rights, the issue of special-needs education might have languished still longer.

A raft of legislation has come into play in the last few years, and schools are running to catch up. At the conference, it was fascinating to learn that last summer Minister for Education Mary Hanafin signed into law Section 14 of EPSEN, which deals with schools' obligations to provide appropriate education for children with special needs. Remarkably, Section 13, which deals with the Minister's responsibilities, including the provision of adequate resources, has yet to be commenced. Indeed, one of the tasks facing the NCSE is to provide the Minister with an implementation report by April 2006, that is, a full report on what will be needed to carry out the Act, including what it will cost and what additional personnel and training will be needed.

The focus on special educational needs is one of the most far-reaching reforms in decades in Irish education. Yet, what exactly will be needed to make it a reality will be established months after schools have had a legal obligation imposed on them to vindicate children's rights. It is hard to imagine what other enterprise would get away with this kind of planning, or rather lack of planning. Yet most of the schools were glumly resigned to having to embark on this reform in the full knowledge that the resources are not there.

One principal wondered why I was so shocked, given that "this is how the DES always does business". According to the Budget estimates, spending on special education will exceed €640 million in 2006, but every penny of it - and more - will be needed.

In one way, it is an exciting time, because finally some children will receive what they are entitled to, but in another, it is daunting in the extreme. Anyone who received his or her teaching qualification more than 10 years ago probably got little or no training in how to teach people with special needs. Mind you, those who qualified more recently could not be said to be able to provide the highly specialised teaching needed by children with special educational needs, either.

Until now, there has been an understandable emphasis on getting things well underway in primary schools. Very soon, children whose parents are used to the whole idea of individualised education plans are going to start appearing in secondary schools, and many schools feel nervous and unprepared. Despite adverse comments that some schools are dodging their obligations with regard to special educational needs, the fact is that the available resources and personnel have been totally inadequate. A tiny minority of schools, principally expensive private schools, when they were barred from using entrance tests as a way of limiting their intake to children with a high academic standard, resorted to requesting children's annual school reports from primary schools, and cherry-picked in that way instead. In contrast to this callous approach, most schools were trying to do their best in impossible situations. A significant minority were exemplary long before there was a legal obligation, often funded directly by religious orders.

It is striking how often the word "principal" recurs in the legislation. The loudest groan of the day came when Glendenning sensibly said that it was impossible for a principal to do all that is required of him or her in law, and that it must be delegated. "To whom?" came the heartfelt cry. A special educational needs co-ordinator is needed in every school, outside the current schedule of posts. Massive levels of in-service training are also needed. In the meantime, schools will continue to try, as the majority of them have always done, to meet the needs of children, even in the absence of necessary resources.

Breda O'Brien is a teacher at Muckross Park College, Donnybrook, Dublin