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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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A survey conducted by the INTO, Primary Teachers' Exposure to Physical Aggression. (May, 2024) revealed that the increase in physical attacks on teachers in primary schools is a cause for great concern.
Portlaoise teacher and INTO member Ms Deirdre Fleming spoke to the Leinster Express / Laois Live on this startling revelation.
"I am teaching over 38 years, and I have seen a huge increase of assaults in schools," Ms Fleming said.
"This is due to a variety of factors, but it comes down to the lack of supports for children. It is not the children's fault, they are victims of circumstance," she explained.
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Number of Individuals who availed of 'Leave of Absence following Assault'
|
||||
|
|
|
2022
|
2023
|
2024
|
|
Primary Teacher
|
76
|
108
|
106
|
|
|
Primary SNA
|
177
|
296
|
285
|
|
|
Post Primary Teacher
|
5
|
3
|
7
|
|
|
Post Primary SNA
|
2
|
5
|
6
|
|
|
Total
|
260
|
412
|
404
|
|
Above: recent findings from the INTO on assault leave.
"There is a huge number of new special classes that have opened, and there are still a lot of students with additional needs in mainstream schools.
"We have children that we know need play therapy and occupational therapy, and they are not getting it. They then kick off in schools," Ms Fleming said.
"Covid had a massive impact, it caused many children to miss their crucial developmental checks. They have issues that would have been picked up in schools, and there are children unable to access the therapies they need," Ms Fleming said.
"There are therapist positions to be filled, and there is a huge percentage of newly qualified therapists that are getting on planes and leaving for Australia, where they will find better working conditions.
"We are qualified to teach, we are not qualified as occupational therapists, but we are having to deal with all of these issues," she said.
"Last month, our school held an in-service after school session on how to deal with dangers of physical threat, and how to protect other children," she said.
"Our board of management paid for this through a private company. We were lucky that we had the money in the kitty to pay for this, while not all schools would. It should be the Department of Education that provide this training," she said.
"The Leave of Absence following Assault Scheme does not cover the medical costs of Individuals who availed of the Scheme. The department has not paid any compensation to individuals who availed of the Leave of Absence following Assault Scheme from 2022-2024, as the department is not the employer."
"The frightening reality is that our schools have become the de facto mental health and therapeutic service providers for children, a role for which they are neither designed, equipped nor funded," they finished.
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