Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Deputy raised that school again. I raised it last week as well. I have great memories of my visits there. It was involved in the P-TECH project. It was during an aside conversation with one of the teachers that I was told about that progression. The teacher spoke about the progression not just to university but to further education and training and apprenticeships. They are doing this year-on-year. I have made clear to my officials that all of the investment we are putting into disadvantage schools and DEIS schools is to work on that progression. If there is a year-to-year progression in terms of those schools moving to stronger classes than they had the previous year, this goes back to the school alignment. A school, be that a geography teacher in Larkin community college or a maths teacher in my old school in Milford, will sit down with colleagues to work through the guidelines and procedures that they have to follow through as from tomorrow. There will then be an alignment with the principal and there will be an engagement looking at the progression of those individual students.

The Deputy raised the good point, which I am glad he raised publicly tonight, that if schools are making year-to-year progress they should not be disadvantaged in any way. There are other examples in other schools. For example, a school that has introduced honours maths this year for the first time will have no comparable evidence. It is the year that is relevant in the school alignment process and it is the school results that are key here.

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