Episode 5

Access Undone: The Collapse of Special Education [Episode 5]

When I appeared on Virgin Media television's "Ireland's Education Crisis," I thought my phone would be buzzing from radio stations eager to find out why I thought the way we treat children with additional needs is Ireland's 21st century scandal. I didn't hear a single thing. It's a theme I'm getting used to when I raise special education: silence.

In the same vein, in this episode, I try to get a look into the inner workings of the NCSE. As you'll probably note from the length of this episode, I didn't get very far.

However, as I was writing this episode, something happened. The NCSE announced new guidelines for allocating resources. Perhaps our next episode will spark some positivity?

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome to access on done.

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The collapse of special education.

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Especial podcast from unsharp dot Nash.

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This is Simon Lewis, a teacher and

principal for over 20 years in this

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series, I look back over the short

history of how children with additional

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needs have slowly but surely been

cast aside by the education system.

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I argue that much like the crimes

of the Catholic church on children,

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where the scandal of the 20th century.

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That how the state is treating children

with additional needs will be the scandal.

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Of the 21st.

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I have to confess.

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I'm a little disappointed.

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That this podcast has

had the exact impact.

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That I thought it would.

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After I appeared on Arlen's education

crisis on Virgin media television

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at the end of August, 2024.

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I expected my phone to be buzzing the

next morning from the radio stations that

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usually call me about education topics.

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I didn't get a single message.

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Perhaps foolishly.

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Because I've even less

reach than Virgin media.

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I thought I'd expand on the input

I gave to the show for this series.

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I also hope by, by stretching out

the episodes a couple of weeks apart.

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That I'd gather some content

from people in the system.

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Even if it was anonymously.

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Unfortunately barring one statistic.

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I've had the same amount of

information as I had when I started.

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This is the penultimate

episode of access on done.

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Where I enter as far as I can

into the walls of the N C S E.

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If I was to tell you that half of

the teachers in a school quit their

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jobs within a couple of years.

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It would probably be national news.

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In fact, this is almost exactly what

happened in:

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in county Wexford called cushions town.

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In a nutshell, several teachers left their

permanent jobs between:

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The board of management was dissolved

and the school almost came to a point

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of being closed down as no solution

appeared to be on the horizon.

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It was a fascinating story.

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It was no surprise that it made

the national news and it might even

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make a good podcast in its own.

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Right.

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However, when 31 out of the 66 and a half

CNOs left the NCSE between:

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Almost half of their entire

front facing workforce.

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There wasn't a single word about it.

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I have the names of every CNO that left

their position between those two years.

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How many of them are you going to

hear from in person in this episode?

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The answer.

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As you may not be surprised to hear.

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We'll be non.

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This episode is going to be incredibly

short in some ways, because in

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trying to build a picture of what's

happening inside the walls of the NCSC.

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To be honest, I got almost nowhere.

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Unfortunately, as you'll see

the walls of the NCSE are

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similar to the walls of silence.

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I faced since starting this series.

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It's very hard to penetrate them.

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We'll be left with more

questions than answers as we

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come to the end of this episode.

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However, I hope that this and the last

few episodes would have brought you

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to a place where you'll also maybe be

moved to ask some questions yourself.

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As I'm writing this episode.

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I'm processing the contents of another

TV show that aired at the end of

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October on RTE, it was called leathered.

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It was an investigation into the physical

assault and abuses that took place on

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a daily basis in Irish schools until

a corporal punishment was outlawed

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in Irish schools in the early 1980s.

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It was a very upsetting watch.

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Mainly focusing on the lives of men still

affected by the treatment they received in

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school, even though some of them are well

into their fifties and sixties and beyond.

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And some of them visibly breaking down

as they recalled the daily punishments.

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Of being attacked by their teachers.

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It was difficult for me not to

keep thinking about the correlation

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with this podcast series.

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There were over half a million children

in the education system, the large

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majority of them witnessing some of

the most vulnerable classmates being

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assaulted sometimes every single day.

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And yet only a small handful spoke up.

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The rest stayed.

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Absolutely silent.

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I'm also just after watching a film,

small things like these, and it

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couldn't have been a better title to

a film about one of the many scandals

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of the Catholic church in Ireland.

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And it was hard not to

draw comparisons again.

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As I said, in a previous part

of this series, I believe what

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we're doing to children with

additional needs has many parallels.

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There's a perceived problem in

that we have lots of children

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diagnosed with autism and we don't

have enough resources to provide

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the children with what they need.

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So we've invented things which we seem

to have no issue with calling units.

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And once the children are in these units.

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I mean, even the name would give it

away that there's something wrong here.

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What a name to give to someone that's

supposed to be caring a unit or you

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couldn't get a more uncaring name, but

anyway, once these children are in these

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units, the perceived problem seems to be

gone away according to the vast majority

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of people and much like Eileen, who's

the main character, his wife in the film.

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Who innocently justifies her husband.

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Bill's discomfort by saying that

the nuns feed the girls, clothed

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the girls and give them work.

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She also tells bill if you

want to get on in this life.

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There are things you have to ignore.

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In fact, I would say she is

the voice of general society.

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Kilian Murphy's character, bill,

is most likely going to be punished

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for his small, but heroic action.

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And in the end, even though he did

one small thing in the bigger picture,

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because of society's reluctance to speak.

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Bill will be the one to pay the price.

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I've spoken before about my own

experience of standing up to

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leaders when I was in school.

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And perhaps as a teenager, one gets get

out of jail free card because of the folly

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of youth, perhaps, however, I've seen

how a community will stay quiet and it

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allows someone in power use their power to

keep that power, whether that's terrible

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things or maybe just small things.

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So in a way as we enter the end of my look

at the NCSE, we're kind of back to where

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we started with the compliance of silence.

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The cost of that silence is that

we allow bad things to continue.

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The cost of not being silent is

the risk of potential self cost.

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I know this a little bit though.

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I also know that the rewards for staying

silence, aren't really important.

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You don't get to be the head of any

organization by being outspoken.

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I think I've learned that for sure.

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You get there by not being

outspoken and staying quiet.

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Anyway, let's enter the walls of the

NCSC with one of my favorite statistics.

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And I've already mentioned it because

I think the statistic alone summed

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up everything you needed to know

about the NCSC and why you believe

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they failed children in Ireland.

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And here is that statistic.

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In 2003, the NCSE employed 72 CNOs.

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And 15 other staff.

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In 2019, they employed 64 and a

half CNAs and 150 other staff.

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I wrote that as statistic in a tweet

the end of the school year in:

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And I got a response.

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From someone called Ashlyn bacon.

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Now, if that name means nothing to you.

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Don't worry.

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It meant nothing to me either.

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However, if you look at the list of the

31 seniors that left the NCSE between

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2021 and 2023, her name is on that list.

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And this was her reply to my tweet.

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I left the NCSE after 17 years

where I worked tired of C as a CNO.

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I loved my job and I worked

collaboratively with schools and parents.

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I left because of shocking management.

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I left because I could no longer stand

over decisions made by management.

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I could write a book.

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It was mashed with several

well-wishers who confirmed that

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she did work tirelessly as a CNO.

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It seems she was a good egg.

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I tried to reach out to her, but

I never heard from her again.

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However, as much as I suspected that

CNAs were being relegated in their duties

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to merely pushing paper around and not

being allowed to make any decisions.

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I never heard anyone

say anything out loud.

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And that was the closest I got to it.

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I can't tell you anything else about

any of the other 31 CNAs on the list.

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Apart from one John Morin who

left the CNO position to become

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a principal of a special school.

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If someone leaves a CNO position

after 20 years to become a principal,

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I'd wager it wasn't because the

opportunity never came up before then.

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However, I don't know the

reason, so I can't make a point.

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There are however, one or two others

on the list who stories I currently do

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know, but I can't share them right now.

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And maybe in the future,

I will be able to do so.

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However privately they have backed up

what Ashlyn bacon said in her tweet reply.

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One CNO pointed, meets the public accounts

of the NCSC to look up their legal costs.

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So I've done that.

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I also sent in a freedom of information

request regarding these legal

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fees, that the NCSE have incurred.

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But to be honest, I wouldn't

be getting very excited.

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The figures are for sure interesting.

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But I don't know if there's

anywhere to go with them.

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I decided I'd look at the

legal fees incurred since:

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And to be honest, I'm only going with

this thread because of the anonymous

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tip-off and I'm not exactly sure what

legal fees could be incurred by the

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NCSC except for employment issues.

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Maybe WRC cases taken from parents.

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Maybe getting legal advice.

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Uh, around the new Brunswick model or

so, or maybe the Aon, but it is possible.

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Uh, the NTSA to get legal

advice and pay for that.

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On these other issues.

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However, I will say their legal

fees are actually quite interesting.

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The first thing I noticed.

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Well, it's from 2003, all the

way to:

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legal fees of 15 1 5 15 Euro.

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In total, in those four years.

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In 2007, they went up to 600 and

five-year-old which for anyone who's

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getting legal advice is not much.

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And then in 2008, it

did go up significantly.

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Up to 12,138.

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I don't know why that is.

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If there's no detail of it.

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From 2009 to 2011, they were back down

to an average of about a thousand Juro.

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Um, a year, which seems about right.

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2012 went up to 2000 before going

back to:

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So.

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Um, freely from 2003 to 2016.

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Uh, an average of less than a thousand

Euro a year, but then from:

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2019, for whatever reason, legal fees

jumped to over 10,000 Euro a year.

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And then all of a sudden in 2020.

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Legal fees hit 102,000.

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Gero.

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And in 2021, they jumped to

Gero:

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And we haven't received

the:

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But with all the legal

challenges to the AOM process,

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I look forward to seeing them.

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So, I mean, you can see there

from nothing, almost nothing to

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nearly 200 ties and zero a year.

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Something is going on where

there's a lot of legal action being

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taken, or a lot of legal advice,

certainly a lot of legal fees.

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And in order to figure.

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Out how much money was spent on

legal fees on staffing issues.

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I made my guess, that this would have

been expenses that say for the work

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relations commission or the WRC as it's

known and knowing how specific one has to

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be with freedom of information requests.

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I knew I had to ask specifically

for this, so maybe there's other

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legal fees around staffing, but I

just don't know how to ask for them.

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So I only was able to get three

years of data from the freedom

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of information request, but the

figures were kind of interesting.

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Nonetheless.

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I'm just quoting the latter.

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I received.

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Outlined below is a spend on fees by

the NCSC directly related to WRC cases.

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20 23, 40 6,162 Euro 34 cent.

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Um, 20 22, 30 8,010 Euro, 40 cent

only:

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I also asked, uh, by parents

taking the NCSE to the WRC.

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And since 2014, the total legal

costs were less than 15 times.

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And so it doesn't seem to be parents

that are causing the huge legal fees.

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I mean, again, it's very hard to know.

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I also asked them about

resignations of CNOs.

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He knows because I felt that

was important for correlation.

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And again, I should have been more

specific because the figures I was

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saying don't really match the 31

people that left between:

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I know some people retired

and I know one that died.

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However, just taking resignations into

account between:

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more resignations in those two years.

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Than in the first six years

of the:

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And again, I don't know

what that tells us.

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It's just interesting to see their

figures and we can draw whatever

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conclusions we must from them.

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I'm not sure what

conclusions I could draw.

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The account of the NTSC from 2003 to

:

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interesting to see the eye watering

amounts, which have come into the

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budget over the years because wages

have remained relatively stable.

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It's fascinating to see how

the total budget is spent.

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Front-facing expenses remained

largely stable, but other expenses

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have increased by nearly 8 million

Euro a year in the last decade.

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And ultimately as

disappointing as this might be.

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I just couldn't bridge any further

into the walls of the organization.

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I've no stories from the inside.

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Yes.

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So, all I can do is tell you that

hopefully one day they will come.

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All that's really left to do.

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It's maybe come up with solutions.

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It will be very easy for me to

share more stories about the NCSE.

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My favorite one was B I

was there for heartache.

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With the new Brunswick model back in 2019.

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And I'm not sure what actually

halted, whether that was the COVID-19

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pandemic or the fact that it turned

out, it was going to cost more than

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the current system was costing.

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However, I feel it's only fair that

I would tell you what I would do if I

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were the minister for education after

all, that's the title of my podcast.

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Despite how bad things have become.

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And despite had the NCSC was

slowly but surely becoming an Ima

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punishable, bureaucratic machine.

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I still think it's not

too late to rescue it.

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It's entirely a coincidence, but

in the last few weeks, the NCSC

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has made some announcements.

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And.

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On the face.

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To ease many of the problems that they

actually created in the last decade.

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And I'm going to acknowledge them.

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I can go to explore them.

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But you're going to have to

wait another couple of weeks.

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When I aim to rebuild the N C S E.

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The on-call dot net podcast is written

and produced by me, Simon Lewis.

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If you'd like to hear more of my thoughts

on primary education in Ireland, you

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should subscribe to my mailing list

on Shaw dot Nash slash subscribe.

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If you've enjoyed this podcast so far,

please consider reviewing it on your

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favorite podcast player, as it will

help other people find it more easily.

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Until next time.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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Bye-bye.

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