Oireachtas snub dubbed elitist and insulting
by Niall Shanahan
 
The union’s head of education, Andy Pike, said there was no excuse to exclude education workers who had extensive experience of the school environment and a clear understanding of the challenges of re-opening schools.
The union’s head of education, Andy Pike, said there was no excuse to exclude education workers who had extensive experience of the school environment and a clear understanding of the challenges of re-opening schools.

Fórsa has described the decision to exclude special needs assistants (SNAs) and other school-based staff from last week’s session of the Oireachtas Special Committee on the Covid-19 Response as “elitist and insulting.”

 

The committee discussed the re-opening of schools and heard contributions from teachers unions and parents representative bodies.

 

Fórsa, which represents 10,000 SNAs as well as school secretaries, caretakers and other support staff, said their voices should also have been heard by the committee. The union’s comments attracted strong support on social media.

 

Like the organisations invited to the oral session, Fórsa made a detailed submission to the Oireachtas Covid-19 Response Committee in June, detailing the potential problems faced by SNAs, school secretaries, caretakers and cleaners.

 

The union’s head of education, Andy Pike, said there was no excuse to exclude education workers who had extensive experience of the school environment and a clear understanding of the challenges of re-opening schools.

 

“Our members are very disappointed that the committee did not feel that their voice should be heard in this discussion. We had hoped that attitudes towards special education had changed and that the voice of SNAs, as a significant staff group in education, would be respected.

 

“It’s no surprise that, yet again, our schools support staff, such as secretaries and caretakers, have also been ignored. We can assure the chair of the committee that Fórsa will redouble its efforts to ensure that the voices of the thousands of non-teaching staff are heard, and that their work is valued.

 

Ignoring their contribution in schools and excluding them from discussion in re-opening schools is frankly elitist and insulting,” he said.

 

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