Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak on this issue. It is almost 18 years to the day since the then Fianna Fáil Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, established the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, programme. Disadvantage occurs throughout our communities and schools but I believe education is the great leveller, and we must do all that we can in order to support all students and young people accessing education in its fullest sense. In this respect, the Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the DEIS programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector. I am very conscious of the benefits of the DEIS programme, to which the Senator alluded. Analysis has shown that since the programme began, it has helped to close the gap in achievement between schools serving the highest levels of educational disadvantage and those serving populations with little or no disadvantage. It has provided children who come to education at a disadvantage with an equitable opportunity to achieve their potential in education.

This year, the Department will spend approximately €180 million providing additional supports to schools in the DEIS programme. This includes an additional €32 million allocated to extend the programme from last September, meaning the programme now includes over 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means one in four of all students are now supported in the programme.

The DEIS programme targets the highest levels of resources at those primary schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage through according DEIS urban band 1 status. Schools in this band receive a more beneficial staffing schedule. Class sizes have been reduced in DEIS urban band 1 schools in recent budgets. This means that this year the staffing schedule for DEIS urban band 1 vertical schools is 20:1; DEIS urban band 1 junior schools is 18:1; and DEIS urban band 1 senior schools is 22:1. Urban band 1 schools receive a DEIS grant which reflects their high level of concentrated disadvantage and receive priority access to the support of the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. DEIS urban band 1 schools are also included in the home school community liaison scheme and have access to the school completion and schools meals programmes.

Last year, the Department announced the extension of the DEIS programme to benefit 361 schools. This included 79 new and existing DEIS primary schools which were included in DEIS urban band 1 for the first time and this year received an increased allocation of support.This means the highest levels of support under the DEIS programme are now provided to 306 primary schools.

Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the application of the refined DEIS identification model. The development of this model involved an extensive body of work by the DEIS technical group to identify concentrated levels of disadvantage in schools. The model used the Pobal HP deprivation index and took into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and by students residing in direct provision and emergency homeless accommodation.