Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The new national anti-bullying procedures, which have been adopted and will be implemented in 4,000 primary and post-primary schools, were launched September of last year.

Funding of €60,000 was made available for anti-bullying training for parents which is being provided jointly by the National Parents Councils, primary and post-primary. There were some 105 parent anti-bullying sessions for 3,279 participants last year and further sessions will be arranged this year. Arising from the review of teacher education support services provision, a phased programme of continuing professional development has been developed to support schools in the context of the action plan and anti-bullying procedures. This will be provided through the support service in the education centre network this year. The Department supported Safer Internet Day in 2013 and will continue its support for the event in 2014. As Deputies know, the Internet is connected with cyber bullying.

The Department provided over €50,000 in support of the Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week last March against homophobic and transphobic bullying in second level schools. We will support the initiative again this year. The production of guidelines for school staff and boards of management on homophobic bullying is also being supported.

Two research projects on children with special needs and social media, suggested in the plan, were commissioned in 2013. It is anticipated that this research will be completed this year.

The last question raised by the Deputy was related to the evaluation of DEIS. The key commitment is to have ongoing evaluation of the programme to ensure its successful implementation and the best possible approaches to measuring progress and outcomes at both local and national level, with an increased emphasis on formative evaluation in the sense of providing regular feedback on the operation of programmes, as well as on the summative evaluation which assists in coming to a judgment on the overall worth and value of the measure. The Education Research Centre, based in Drumcondra, has been carrying out an evaluation of DEIS on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills since the programme's introduction in 2006-07. The evaluation was the subject of a substantial conference recently, details of which I will give to the committee. The bottom line is that DEIS is working and closing the gap between the achievements and scholarly outcomes in DEIS schools and those in normal, mainstream schools. There are lessons to be learned for all schools because some of the methodology used to manage and measure DEIS inputs should also be used in mainstream schools. Were they to use it, it is probable that their own outcomes would improve. The gap between socially disadvantaged DEIS schools, in terms of educational achievements, relative to mainstream schools has been closed in a number of ways. I will write to the Deputy with the precise references in that regard.