Funding cuts in support for pupils with dyslexia have put teachers under pressure to pay for training out of their own pocket, costing up to £3,800. According to the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) many teachers are self-funding their own training as schools cannot afford for this specific course. The BDA have stated that three or four pupils in every class have dyslexia; this affects 10 to 15 per cent of the population. If teachers are not given the correct training to tackle dyslexia, some children may not make progress which would cause teachers to lose confidence.
Why is this training not available in schools?
Where some teachers have personal experience with dyslexia and know how to deal with it, a lot of educators do not know how to differentiate their curriculum to support them. To Rikama, teachers want to be able to help as many teachers as possible, so why isn’t this course offered by schools? And instead must be self-funded?
Having a specialist dyslexia teacher in every school to help assist and train staff would cost roughly £100 million a year, this is currently the amount of money being spent in legal costs fighting parents who want dyslexia support for their children. Could this easily be organised?
