Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and for a new integrated school support programme. The school support programme will bring together and build on a number of existing interventions in schools with concentrated levels of disadvantage. The process of identifying primary and second level schools for participation in the school support programme was managed by the Educational Research Centre on behalf of the Department of Education and Science and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the inspectorate. As a result of the identification process, 840 schools were invited to participate in the school support programme. Some 640 primary schools — 320 urban schools and 320 rural schools — and 200 second level schools were invited to participate and I am delighted that 833 of them, or over 99% have accepted the invitation.

A review process has been put in place for primary and second level schools which did not qualify for participation in the school support programme, but regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is sufficient to warrant inclusion in it. The closing date for the receipt of review applications was Friday, 31 March last. The review process will operate under the direction of an independent person who will be charged with ensuring all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the cases of schools applying for a review. The reviewer will be supported by a nominated member of staff from the Educational Research Centre and an official from the Department of Education and Science. The group will be given all the information and support it needs to carry out its work by the Educational Research Centre and the Department. The review process is under way and it is anticipated that it will be completed by the end of the current school year.

The review process applies to primary schools which participated in the Educational Research Centre survey in May 2005 and eligible second level schools for which data were available from the relevant databases. The applications of primary schools which seek a review must relate to data on the relevant variables included in the centre's survey of May 2005 and to the reference date of 30 September 2004. The centre's analysis of its survey returns identified the socioeconomic variables which collectively best predict achievement. The variables were used to identify schools for participation in the school support programme. The applications of second level schools which seek a review must be based on the variables used to determine eligibility for inclusion in the school support programme. Review requests must be evidence-based and based on the variables and reference dates used in the identification process for the programme. Having completed the process for each school requesting a review, the review group will make a recommendation to the Department in the case of each such school. The review process is structured in such a way as to ensure fairness and balance and with the necessary expertise to process and review effectively the more than 300 applications received.

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