24 June 2018
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune has welcome the news that Cork schools are to get 83 more Special Needs Assistance positions this coming school year. This will bring the number of SNAs in primary and secondary schools in Cork to 1,898.
There will be 15,000 Special Needs Assistants working in schools across Ireland this coming September. This is a 42% increase on 2011, when the number of SNAs stood at 10,575.
Deirdre Clune, MEP said: “The work of Special Needs Assistants is so important and their jobs are vital in schools around Ireland. I am glad to see more SNAs this coming school year will be in place in schools in Cork and we need to make sure that those children who need assistance with learning get it.
“The Government is indeed working hard to ensure that support is being made available for children with special educational needs and this is so important. It’s great to see that there will be 15,000 SNAs working in our schools by the end of 2018 and especially an extra 83 in Cork schools. The Government now invests €524m in SNAs annually, as part of a total €1.75 billion investment that they invest in special educational needs overall.”
There was a recent Review into the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Scheme by the National Council of Special Education (NCSE).