Just 20% of special school students had access to summer programme
Availed Programmes Schools In More The Special Disruption Major 1,600 By School Summer Following In Of Students Than Caused Pandemic,
Just one in five of all students had access in their special school this summer to a programme designed to help extend the school year and reduce regression.
Following major disruption caused by the pandemic, more than 1,600 students in special schools availed of in-school summer programmes.
This works out at about 20% of the more than 8,000 students enrolled in special schools for the academic year.
The details are included in a freedom of information request released to ‘Special Schools and Classes, Ireland’, a parents' advocacy group. Under the scheme, students whose school does not run a summer programme can avail of home tuition.
However, this option isn’t always feasible for many students of special schools, and it is considered “unworkable” and “impossible” to get access to a tutor, a spokesperson for the group said.
“The department itself through the National Council for Special Education acknowledges that home-based programmes ‘are considered the least effective way to deliver the scheme’, citing the inability of many children with autism and intellectual disabilities to cope with strangers in the home environment.
It said many parents say they don't even try to get somebody because it would only cause more distress in a long summer holiday that already has them at breaking point.
Social media pages were "awash" this year with parents scrambling to find a tutor, according to the spokesperson. "With the expansion of the programme fourfold this summer, making 81,000 students eligible, it was even harder than usual to find a tutor."
The group has called on the Department of Education to consider ways trainee teachers, therapists, psychologists or medical students could play a role in the in-school programmes as part of their training.
The summer programme, originally called ‘July Provision’, has been extended dramatically since the summer of 2020 to account for how school closures affected vulnerable students.
Earlier this year, there were calls for a root and branch review of the summer programme by disability advocacy groups. Inclusion Ireland warned the enhanced programme this year would not serve the needs of many children amid low take-up among schools, difficulty in sourcing home tutors, and the exclusion of children with mild intellectual disabilities in mainstream education.
Inclusion Ireland was also critical of the fact that details of the scheme were not announced until mid-May which, it said, impacted on time for school planning and parents’ ability to source tutors.