Sir, – Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Josepha Madigan has made significant progress in trying to ensure that schools are in a position to respond to those who have special educational needs (Letters, September 7th).
This is a welcome development, although whether it is sufficient, only time will tell.
The Minister will be well aware that her inclusion brief is far-reaching and that significant reform is needed in order to make our schools more inclusive.
The Government, in its roadmap document, recognises that the impact of school closures resulting from Covid-19 “has not been uniform” and accepts that various categories of student, including those at risk of educational disadvantage, have been the “most adversely affected”.
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Summer learning loss is a well-established phenomenon in educational systems across the world.
Teachers in Deis schools regularly comment on the negative impact of even short closures on pupils. We can only imagine the impact of a five-month closure.
Unfortunately, the roadmap document contains no provision for schools to address this problem.
Hence, the gap between disadvantaged students and their peers will have widened as a result of Covid-19 and, to date, the Government has not formulated a response as to how it proposes to tackle the issue.
Of course, initially the roadmap document focused on health and safety, and that is quite understandable.
However, we must respond not just to the health and safety challenges posed by Covid-19 but also to the educational ones.
School principals will have begun discussions with colleagues to identify the greatest educational deficits that have arisen as a result of the five-month hiatus from school. Schools need to be empowered to respond to these key challenges before the school year has advanced too far.
Depending on the particular circumstances, this may involve a range of strategies, including smaller classes, one-to-one tuition, homework clubs and the provision of additional information technology devices.
It is best left to schools locally to determine the wisest course of action, but clearly additional resources need to be supplied in order to enable them to do so. – Yours, etc,
Prof JUDITH
HARFORD,
Dr BRIAN
FLEMING,
School of Education,
University College Dublin,
Dublin 4.