Dáil debates

Tuesday, 13 February 2007

Priority Questions

Disadvantaged Status.

3:00 am

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 91: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will review the DEIS scheme in County Mayo and guarantee the same funding and benefits beyond 2007; the reason for the anomaly where one of two second level schools on Achill Island has been excluded, although all 11 feeder schools on the island are deemed disadvantaged by her Department and a similar situation exists in Erris; if she will take steps to guarantee beyond the current funding for disadvantage to the DEIS excluded schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5338/07]

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Ensuring children from the most disadvantaged communities in Mayo and elsewhere get the support they need to succeed at school is a key priority for the Government. To this end, we have increased investment in tackling educational disadvantage significantly in recent years. In 2007, we are providing almost €730 million for targeted initiatives at all levels, an increase of almost €95 million on the comparable 2006 figure.

This investment supports the roll-out of additional supports under the DEIS action plan, through which 68 primary schools and eight post-primary schools in County Mayo will benefit from a comprehensive package of extra supports. Mayo schools are very well represented on the list of DEIS schools, making up almost 20% of all the rural schools in the programme.

In the case of schools that did not qualify for the new programme, it is important to note that an independent review process was available. Additional schools were added to the programme as a result of successful review applications. I am satisfied that all schools have been assessed on the basis of the best information available, have been ranked in terms of the right criteria and have been given a fair opportunity to appeal. Unsuccessful schools were advised at an early stage that they would be allowed to keep the supports that they have under pre-existing schemes for the current school year.

My Department is now in the process of informing these schools that they will retain additional teaching resources for the duration of the DEIS action plan. The effectiveness of these posts will be reviewed in line with the ongoing review process in place for DEIS schools. It will be a condition of the retention of such posts that schools comply with any reasonable requirements of the review process.

Schools which currently participate in the home-school-community liaison, HSCL, scheme will not be excluded from the scheme and will, from the commencement of the 2007-08 school year, continue to avail of HSCL services for the duration of the DEIS action plan. The level of service will be commensurate with both the size of the school and its relative level of disadvantage.

Many schools at present retain additional capitation from previous schemes which have now been subsumed into DEIS. From the beginning of the 2007-08 school year, this capitation will be offset against increases in the rate of general capitation. This process will take four years and will ensure that no school will experience a reduction in annual capitation as a result of this measure. Changes may, of course, arise from other factors such as enrolments.

I am satisfied that not only has the Government provided for a major increase in supports to our most disadvantaged schools through DEIS, but it has also addressed the concerns of schools that did not qualify for the new initiative.

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for her reply but she has engineered a crisis in Mayo. Schools are distressed because of a situation which is equivalent to losing a teacher. Class sizes will have to be increased and she has increased divisiveness and discrimination in Mayo. I asked specifically about the situation on Achill Island, a deprived area in which there are 13 schools, some 11 of which are feeder schools. They are all in DEIS and recognised as such by the Department. However, of the two that accept children from the national school, only one is in DEIS. The two schools are only separated by a wall but one receives an additional €30,000 funding. In that school, the pupils must achieve greater marks than the deprived children to reach third level. Does deprivation stop at that wall? How does this happen? I do not understand how one of two schools that are right beside each other is not in the programme while the other is, particularly when every second child that goes to these schools is classified as deprived. A similar situation exists in Erris. There are 22 feeder schools to two second level schools and one of them has been left out of the programme. It does not make sense.

This process was based on a flawed system that penalises schools that have done well and retained children. The schools would do better to expel all of their children. The criteria for the system are out of date and do not reflect the last three to five years when we were swamped with students who speak English as a second language.

The Minister's own list refers to the transferring from primary to second level, stating that the key principle of early intervention, to identify and help children at risk of leaving school early, is a major component of DEIS, with a continuing emphasis being placed on the development of effective transfer programmes for pupils making the transition to second level by building on the existing work of the HSCL scheme and the school completion programme. The Minister is not even following her own criterion. Surely the transition means that those children who are deprived at primary level are deprived at second level too. This does not make sense and I ask the Minister to rationalise it.

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The criteria were devised by the Educational Research Centre and can stand up in any circumstances when examining factors in disadvantage, such as large families, unemployment, local authority accommodation, lone parenthood, Travellers, pupils eligible for free books and so on. These characteristics would define levels of disadvantage. Equally, at second level, hard statistical information was available for those on medical cards, retention rates and so on. It is possible that one school in the area did not qualify because no one would say that every child in Achill is disadvantaged and this has to do with the level of disadvantage in a particular school. It could happen that one school had a greater level of disadvantage than the other.

The Deputy made points I would like to correct. He said the school would lose a teacher but, as I indicated in my answer, that is not the case, the schools have already been informed that the teachers they have will be retained throughout the DEIS action plan. The Deputy also said the schools would lose money but no school will experience a reduction in annual capitation as a result of this measure. These issues were of concern to schools that were not included in DEIS so they have all been informed, as I outlined in my answer, about funding, teachers and the home-school-community liaison scheme.

Another element attached to this, although it falls outside the remit of the Department of Education and Science, is the school meals scheme and that will also be continued. We will ensure schools are not disadvantaged by being in the scheme and that the most disadvantaged will continue to gain the most.

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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The second school never got free meals. It is not equitable. The figures the Minister used are based on school statistics for 1995, 1996 and 1997, a long time ago. Of the schools excluded from the scheme, 25% are in Mayo. The figures for Dublin show that 38 schools applied and 26 were accepted, with 12 being refused. In Mayo, nine schools applied and only one was accepted. That is hardly equitable.

The Minister mentioned the home-school-community liaison person. That will be a shared role, the face will disappear from the school. The teacher in St. Muiredeach's will not be there anymore, it will be someone else whom the pupils and staff do not know. I ask the Minister to leave the situation as it is beyond 2007, that is the only fair way to move forward.

The Minister of State said during an Adjournment debate that where there was severe socioeconomic disadvantage and the situation had not been properly evaluated, a re-evaluation could take place. Is that the light at the end of the tunnel?

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy was not listening to me. The schools will retain their posts for the duration of the DEIS plan and continue to be part of the home-school-community liaison depending on the level of disadvantage and the size of the school. The capitation will ensure there is no reduction in funding.

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Will that continue beyond 2007?

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It will continue for the duration of the disadvantage plan. The Deputy is also confused about the figures and dates for the junior certificate. Those were for first years who entered schools in those years, but who sat their junior certificate three years later. We were not using figures from 1995, 1996 or 1997, we were looking at the first years in those years and their junior certificate results.

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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The Minister is using retention figures, which penalises good schools. This is not about the statistics for the national schools, where the criteria were broad, but about second level.

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We were asking if children who entered school in those years finished school, whether they reached and completed junior certificate and then leaving certificate. The information I gave today about schools that were in disadvantage schemes retaining their teaching posts, remaining part of the home-school-community liaison scheme and not losing funding should offer comfort to all schools. The fact that 20% of the rural schools in the scheme are in Mayo identifies the way the schemes target the most disadvantaged pupils. No one in the House would say we should spread the money so thinly that it would not reach the intended targets.

Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Will the same teacher perform the home-school-community liaison?