Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In the short time I have, I will focus on how the lockdowns clearly showed the inequalities that exist, particularly in education. They showed us the need to reassess how we support our schools. Inequality was deepened. There is an issue regarding schools accessing the delivering equality of opportunity in schools,DEIS, programme and in attaining DEIS status. The current process needs to be reassessed because disadvantaged communities are not being captured by the current programme. This needs to be reassessed.

Many schools have been told that the reason they have not been included is that they do not have the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage among their pupil cohort. The principals in many schools know their communities and their students well. We need to listen more to them. The DEIS model needs to be urgently reassessed to address the deep inequality that exists in education.

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