Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 83: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on whether her Department's new approach to tackling educational disadvantage highlights a substantial policy failure within the Government on the commitment to delivering educational equality, particularly in the context of literacy and numeracy in poorer areas; her plans for a more integrated approach, highlighting timescales and budget allocations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19756/05]

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

The new action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS — Delivering Equality Of Opportunity In Schools — which I launched recently, aims to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed.

The plan provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated school support programme, SSP, which will bring together and build upon a number of existing interventions for schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage. Approximately 600 primary schools, comprising 300 urban-town and 300 rural, and 150 second level schools, will be included in the school support programme. The new action plan will be introduced on a phased basis starting in the next school year and will involve an additional annual investment of €40 million on full implementation. It will also involve the provision of some 300 additional posts across the education system.

Since 1997, the Government has increased funding on specific measures at primary and second level to tackle educational disadvantage by some 130% — from some €50 million in 1998 to about €120 million in the current year. The additional €40 million annual investment under this action plan on full implementation will represent a 33% increase on current expenditure and a three-fold increase in spending in this area since 1998.

A key underlying principle of DEIS is that of early intervention, including assisting children who are having difficulty learning to read and write at an early stage before the problem becomes entrenched. In implementing the action plan a number of measures will be rolled out, starting in the next school year, to tackle literacy and numeracy problems in schools serving disadvantaged communities. These measures will include a new advisory service at primary level; more access to initiatives such as reading recovery and maths recovery, which enable intensive, individualised teaching to be provided to the lowest attaining pupils at an early stage, when intervention can be most effective; targeted extension of the successful demonstration library project at second level — 40 more schools will benefit on a phased basis; and a new family literacy project.

Other key measures to be implemented on a phased basis over the next five years include the following: targeted early childhood education provision for 150 school communities; extended availability of home-school-community liaison and school completion programme services; the 150 urban-town primary schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage will be targeted to benefit from maximum class sizes of 20:1 in junior classes and 24:1 in senior classes; rural primary schools participating in the new school support programme will be targeted to benefit from access to a teacher-co-ordinator serving a cluster of schools. Rural primary schools that cannot be clustered will be provided with financial support as an alternative to teacher-co-ordinator support; measures will be implemented to enhance student attendance, educational progression, retention and attainment; measures will be put in place to support the recruitment and retention of principals and teaching staff in schools serving disadvantaged communities; and professional development for principals, teachers and other personnel in schools participating in the SSP will be enhanced.

Central to the success of the action plan will be an increased emphasis on planning at school and school cluster level, target-setting and measurement of progress and outcomes to ensure that the increased investment is matched by an improvement in educational outcomes for the children and young people concerned.