Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if the improved support for pupils with low attainment levels of literacy and numeracy planned for the DEIS action plan will be provided in 2006; if they will be linked to standardised testing; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32785/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The new action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS, delivering equality of opportunity in schools, 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 current 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 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, on a phased basis, 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 in respect of which 40 more schools will benefit on a phased basis; and a new family literacy project.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, has recommended that all pupils should be tested in literacy and numeracy at the end of first or beginning of second class and at the end of fourth or beginning of fifth class and that this should be implemented as soon as it is feasible to do so. My Department is exploring potential implementation models, in advance of entering into discussions with the education partners in the matter. I believe that the introduction of standardised testing on a systematic basis has significant potential to improve the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.