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Special needs pupils in primary and secondary education; Impact Assessment 2010
Following the publication of an audit report, the Court of Audit monitors whether ministers follow up our recommendations and fulfil their undertakings. We publish our findings in Impact Assessments. This Impact Assessment looks at two audits we published in 2005: 'Going to School Together; special needs pupils in primary education' and 'Special needs pupils in pre-vocational secondary education'.
One of the Ministry of Education's policy objectives is that
all pupils – including pupils with special needs who find it
difficult if not impossible to attend school without extra support
– should be able to receive the education that best suits their
talents and specific requirements. The 'special needs
structure' in education must make this possible. The
recommendations we made in 2005 related to part of the special
needs structure: the 'Going to School Together' policy in
primary education and the special needs structure in pre-vocational
secondary education.
Supervision and accountability
- We found that the Minister of Education needed to make it clear how the regional consortia and schools should provide insight into the targets set, the results to be achieved, the financial resources needed and actual achievements.The minister did not follow up this recommendation. Schools and regional consortia still do not systematically evaluate special needs policy. Partly for this reason, it cannot be determined whether the resources for special needs policy (€2.2 billion per annum at central government level) could be applied more efficiently and more effectively.
- In 2005 we wrote that the Education Inspectorate should supervise schools' special needs policies more closely and should review the performance of regional consortia of schools and of cross-school facilities more critically. Supervision of schools' special needs policy has since been structurally strengthened. Cross-school facilities have also been reviewed. Furthermore, the Inspectorate has investigated the problems faced by special needs pupils and reported upon them. The Ministry of Education's supervision of performance, however, is still lacking.
Policy coherence
- In 2005, we had recommended that the Ministry of Education should introduce more coherence into the policy on special needs pupils, in part by better matching the special needs structures in primary and secondary education. Since then the state secretary for education has prepared plans to adapt the special needs structures in primary and secondary education but the plans have not yet been implemented.
- In 2005 we had found that the number of special needs pupils increased on the change from primary education to secondary education. We had found indications that this was possibly due to the open-ended character of schemes in pre-vocational secondary education. The new implementation of the policy (under the name 'Fitting Education') has not closed the open-ended schemes in pre-vocational secondary education or eliminated the financial risks.
We make the following recommendations to the minister and state secretary for education:
- Ensure that the ministry receives the information from the education field that is necessary to determine the impact of policy on special needs pupils.
- Consider strengthening the evaluation function at schools and regional consortia.
- Support the regional consortia in order to strengthen their management function.
- Ensure that supervision of the regional consortia is regulated.
The Minister of Education wrote that our audits had helped clarify where improvements could be made in policy on special needs pupils. The minister qualified our finding that systematic evaluation of the policy was still lacking and noted that a reporting system would be developed in order to provide a retrospective insight into the measurable results of the use of resources. The minister agrees that supervision of regional consortia must be adequate. Talks are being held on how such supervision should be exercised.