Four of the new schools will be in Belfast and the other four in other parts of the country, with the Education Authority (EA) currently carrying out work to identify where they are needed.
Education Minister Paul Givan
Announcing what he called “the biggest step change in education in a generation”, Paul Givan also said 10 schools within his department’s enhancement programme will have their planned extension works “expedited” to help meet the growing demand for places.
“Fairness means not everyone gets the same. It means everyone gets what they need,” the minister said in his announcement to the Assembly, adding that the new SEN (special education needs) capital programme will require an additional half a billion pounds of investment over the next decade — and not at the expense of other capital investment.
“This is a transformational piece of work. We are not in a crisis situation,” he insisted, despite hundreds of parents spending last summer anxiously waiting to learn if their children would be placed in appropriate schools.
“I recognised immediately there was severe pressure in providing places for next September,” said Mr Givan.
“I have set out a transformational programme to meet needs, to put in special provision in mainstream schools, to put in place measures in the short term. There is a long-term piece of work that now needs to be taken forward.”
Mr Givan said plans for the first new special education school in Belfast, which will provide 275 additional spaces, are already underway and will be joined by a second new school in the east of the city.
Additionally, he said more than 200 schools have come forward to express an interest in providing special educational provision within a mainstream setting following a letter sent to all schools by the department last week.
He said: “There was a need to provide 1,000 places. That figure has already been significantly reduced.
“The profile of our children is changing. One in five or our children has a special educational need,” he told the Assembly.
“In recent years there has been an unprecedented increase. Since 2019, the number in special education has risen from 19,000 to 27,000, a 21% rise in pupils attending a special school.
“That is expected to increase until 2032, and 6,000 places are needed over a 10-year period.
“It has presented significant challenges. The need has overtaken all previous planning assumptions and placed an unsustainable pressure on existing capital budget.
“We were at risk of failing our basic responsibilities to keep schools open, children safe and provide places for our most vulnerable learners.
“My department has secured over £60m in additional capital funding, but that’s only the beginning of what is required.
“But this is the biggest step change in a generation, an ambitious and far-reaching investment to transform our special education system, unprecedented in scope and scale.”
Some £5m is to be ring-fenced annually to address the maintenance backlog, with a further £4m a year to provide equipment grants for special schools and schools with specialist provision.
The department will also establish an SEN capital programme.
Mr Givan said that planning of new-build Sperrinview and Knockevin Special Schools will begin immediately, as will capital planning for a second campus of Ardnashee Special School.
And he added that large-scale extension projects at 10 schools in the department’s enhancement programme will now proceed “at pace and scale and in an expedited manner”.
Included in that programme of works will be Roddensvale School Larne, Riverside School Antrim, Clifton School Bangor, Hillcroft School Newtownabbey, Longstone School Dundonald, Sandelford School Coleraine, Thornfield School Newtownabbey, Beechlawn School Hillsborough, Kilronan School Magherafelt and Lisanally School Armagh.
“It is simply not good enough that many of our most vulnerable children are being educated in ageing facilities, too often without adequate equipment and resources,” the minister added.
“Our special school staff, who work with our most vulnerable learners, need and deserve facilities that match their skills and expertise.”