Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of students who failed to make the transition from primary to secondary education in 2003 and 2004; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19717/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The specific information requested by the Deputy is not available at present. However, the National Economic and Social Forum report of 2002 on early school leaving cited, as a broad estimate, that around 1,000 children do not transfer from primary to post-primary on an annual basis. There is some doubt attached to this estimated figure of 1,000, which may be an over-statement of the true position at this stage.

The Education Welfare Act 2000 and the establishment of the National Educational Welfare Board provides a comprehensive framework for promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. To discharge its responsibilities, the board is developing a nationwide service to provide welfare-focused services to children, families and schools. The board currently has an authorised staffing complement of 94.

My Department also operates a number of programmes at both primary and post-primary level to tackle the problem of early school leaving.

The Giving Children an Even Break programme provides additional financial and teaching supports for children in primary schools from disadvantaged backgrounds who are most at risk of educational disadvantage and early school leaving.

A key role in this regard is also played by the home-school-community liaison, HSCL, scheme which helps parents to develop their skills as the primary educators of their children and also addresses issues in the community impinging on learning and educational participation.

The school completion programme directly targets those in danger of dropping out of the education system by targeting individual young people of school going age, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes.

Both the HSCL scheme and all 82 school completion programme projects operate transfer programmes which are very important in assisting pupils in making the transition from primary to post-primary level.

The new action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS — Delivering Equality Of Opportunity In Schools — which I launched recently, focuses on addressing the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities. 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. 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.

A continuing emphasis will be placed on the development of effective transfer programmes by building on the existing work of the HSCL scheme and the school completion programme in this area. An additional guidance counselling provision, being made available for second level schools having the highest concentrations of disadvantage, will also assist in this regard.