Sir, - It takes just one high profile case i.e. the Jamie Sinnott Supreme Court judgment to turn editors and journalists into overnight experts not just on education but on something much more complex, special education.
Do these instant experts on autism know or care that mildly autistic children with special needs and pupils with other behaviour-altering disabilities can be found in primary school classes of 30-plus pupils, with no extra provision of personnel or resources?
Are they aware that in the said primary system, the inadequate allocation of remedial teachers means that only the very weakest receive any remediation and that our recently up-graded Psychological Service provides one psychologist per 29 schools?
I am well aware these statistics haven't the copy potential of a Supreme Court battle, involving an individual deserving of our sympathy and compassion. What concerns me is that what ought to be a wide-ranging debate on the quality and funding of education is reduced to media sound-bites. For example, it's surely obvious that the needs of a 19-year-old autistic man who could lapse into incontinence (TV interview with parent group after the Sinnott judgment), couldn't possibly be summed up under the heading primary education. - Yours, etc.,
Cecilia McGovern. Wellington Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.