Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 118: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to two schools in the Tallaght area in which 54 nationalities are represented, which are not designated disadvantaged but are on the other periphery of a RAPID area, to which no extra funding or teaching staff are available and a large proportion of the parents of whose children are on welfare payments; and the way in which she proposes to support schools working under these conditions. [13125/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

One of the schools to which the Deputy refers is currently included in the Giving Children an Even Break, GCEB, programme and is in receipt of financial support under this scheme. Both schools are included in the school completion programme, which is my Department's main programme for tackling early school leaving.

The school completion programme is based on an integrated cross community approach to tackling educational disadvantage, involving primary and post primary schools, parents, communities and relevant statutory and voluntary agencies. Its objective is to provide a range of interventions in areas of disadvantage that support the retention of young people in education. The two schools referred to by the Deputy are part of a school completion programme "cluster" of one post-primary school and three primary schools that received an allocation of €160,000 in the current school year.

Schools with an enrolment of 14 or more non-English speaking non-national pupils are entitled to an additional teacher for a minimum of a year and a maximum of two years. Where a full-time teacher is sanctioned to provide English language support, a start up grant of €634 is paid with a top up grant of €317 where the appointment is continued for a second year. The two schools to which the Deputy refers have five language support teachers appointed for this school year.