Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

In recent years we have placed a particular focus on reducing class size in schools in disadvantaged areas. The 32 schools in the Breaking the Cycle programme operate to a maximum class size of 15 for junior classes. When the Giving Children an Even Break programme was launched in January 2001, it subsumed the previous process of designation of schools that served areas of educational disadvantage. The programme has separate urban and rural dimensions. Urban schools with the highest concentration of at-risk pupils are supported where necessary through staff allocations to implement a maximum class size of 20 in junior classes. Rural schools with the highest concentration of at-risk pupils have been allocated the services of a teacher/co-ordinator who works in clusters of four or five schools. Rural schools that could not be clustered with other similar schools receive financial supports as an alternative to teacher/co-ordinator support.

With a view to addressing the needs of children in disadvantaged areas into the future, my Department has completed a full review of the measures put in place to support pupils from disadvantaged areas in the past two decades. Arising from this review process, a new policy framework for tackling disadvantage in education will shortly be published.

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