Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

DEIS — delivering equality of opportunity in schools — the new action plan for educational inclusion, which I launched last May, aims to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed.

The plan provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated school support programme, SSP, which will bring together and build upon, a number of existing interventions for schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage. Approximately 600 primary schools and 150 second level schools will be included in the school support programme. The new action plan will be introduced on a phased basis, starting during the current school year, and will involve an additional annual investment of €40 million on full implementation. It will also involve the provision of some 300 additional posts across the education system.

Since 1997, the Government has increased funding on specific measures at primary and second level to tackle educational disadvantage by some 130%, from €50 million in 1998 to €120 million in the current year. The additional €40 million annual investment under this action plan on full implementation will represent a 33% increase on current expenditure and a three-fold increase in spending in this area since 1998.

The plan addresses the following key issues and needs: improving identification of disadvantage — a standardised approach will allow the Department to target resources more effectively; increasing early childhood education provision in the most disadvantaged communities; improving supports for pupils with low attainment levels in literacy and numeracy; enhancing procedures for measuring the outcomes achieved from educational inclusion measures; enhancing integration and partnership working, both within the education sector itself and cross-sectorally; enhancing professional development supports for principals and school staff; and enhancing research and evaluation. The key principle of early intervention underpins both the early childhood education measure and many of the literacy and numeracy measures being adopted under the new action plan.

The new action plan represents a shift in emphasis away from individual initiatives, each addressing a particular aspect of the problem, with the new plan adopting a multifaceted and more integrated approach. This is the first time that an integrated educational inclusion strategy has been developed for three to 18 year olds in this country. A crucial aspect of the action plan will be a more developed planning process, implemented through the school development planning initiative, and improved arrangements for measuring progress and outcomes at both local and national level.

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