Written answers

Thursday, 23 February 2006

Department of Education and Science

Early Childhood Education

4:00 pm

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Question 159: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the value she places on pre-school education in the context of the education system; if she intends moving towards a situation where there is a guaranteed school place for every pre-school child; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7595/06]

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Early education covers the period from birth to six years. At present, almost all five year olds and half of four year olds attend junior infant and senior infant classes in primary schools. Outside of junior classes in primary schools, my Department's main role in the area of early childhood education focuses on pre-school provision for children from disadvantaged areas, Traveller children and those with special needs.

The bulk of pre-school places are financed by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which has provided unprecedented levels of funding for child care in recent years. The Department of Health and Children also provides grants to child care groups, including community groups in areas of social and economic disadvantage.

A Government decision was made in December 2005 to establish an office of the Minister for children. The decision to establish the office of the Minister for children will bring together the relevant staff working on the range of functions in the Departments of Health and Children, Justice Equality and Law Reform, and Education and Science, to maximise the co-ordination of policies for children and young persons. A new early years education policy unit has been established in my Department and it will be co-located in the office of the Minister for children in accordance with the Government decision. Decisions of a policy nature relating to early childhood education will now be pursued as part of the overall strategic policy framework developed by the office of the Minister for children.

The new action plan for educational inclusion — delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS — which I launched in May 2005, aims to concentrate early childhood education actions on those children, aged from three up to school enrolment, who will subsequently attend the 150 urban or town primary schools participating in the new school support programme and identified as serving the most disadvantaged communities. The identification process is nearing completion and we anticipate being in a position to issue an invitation to selected schools to participate in the new integrated school support programme shortly.

The Department of Education and Science will work in partnership with other Departments and agencies to complement and add value to existing child care programmes in disadvantaged communities, with a view to ensuring the overall care and education needs of the children concerned are met in an integrated way. A strong emphasis will be placed on adding value to the work of other providers by embedding quality early learning within child care provision.

The Early Start programme is a pre-school intervention programme targeted at three to four year old children in areas of social disadvantage. With this programme, young children can experience an educational programme to enhance their overall development, help prevent school failure and offset the effects of social disadvantage. The Early Start pre-school project was established in 40 primary schools in designated areas of urban disadvantage in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Drogheda and Dundalk.

My Department currently funds 46 pre-schools for Traveller children with 48 pre-school classes. In the special needs sector, there are currently 15 pre-school classes for children with autism located throughout the country. In addition to this, 12 stand-alone autism facilities that provide an applied behavioural analysis, ABA, model of response to children with autism cater for a number of children of pre-school age. My Department has also sanctioned the establishment of a pre-school for six children with hearing impairment on a pilot basis. In addition, the Department provides a home tuition grant to a number of pre-school children with autism.

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