Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue of delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS. It is the main policy initiative of the Department of Education and Skills to address educational disadvantage at school level.

The DEIS plan is based on the findings of an extensive review of the DEIS programme, which involved consultations with all relevant stakeholders. It sets out the vision for future interventions in the critical area of educational disadvantage policy and builds on what has already been achieved by schools that have benefited from the additional supports available under the initial DEIS programme introduced in 2005.

This year, my Department will spend in the region of €125 million on the DEIS programme providing for smaller class sizes in urban band 1 schools as well as other supports, including DEIS grants, enhanced book grants, home school community liaison co-ordinators, curriculum supports, priority access to continuing professional development and the school excellence fund for DEIS. Evidence from the various evaluations of the DEIS programme demonstrates that it is having a positive effect on tackling educational disadvantage and is succeeding in improving educational outcomes.

Within the DEIS programme itself, in the 2019-2020 school year there are 891 schools serving in excess of 185,000 pupils. This represents approximately 20% of the overall school population, with 231 of the total number of schools being DEIS band 1 schools and availing of smaller class size.

The DEIS programme allows for a reduced class size in urban band 1 primary schools, with the application of a preferential staffing schedule to these schools of 20:1 at junior classes and 24:1 at senior classes to support those students at the highest risk of educational disadvantage.

The DEIS plan acknowledges that the allocation of teaching resources to DEIS primary schools with the highest concentrations of children at risk of educational disadvantage has served to improve learning outcomes and commits to the evaluation of the level of teaching resources for schools participating in DEIS to be undertaken to inform future policy in this area, and work has been undertaken in this regard.

To progress this, a class size working group was established comprising representatives from the education partners, the Educational Research Centre and the relevant units within my Department. A report on the work of this group is currently being finalised and will take into consideration the feedback and observations of the working group members. It is my intention that this will inform future policy in this area.

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