Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 84: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the situation in Belmullet, County Mayo where a school (details supplied) seems to be the only school in the area being excluded from the DEIS scheme; the reasoning behind same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23153/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The process of identifying primary and second-level schools for participation in the new School Support Programme under DEIS was managed by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) on behalf of the Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the Inspectorate.

The ERC's overall approach was guided by the definition of educational disadvantage in the Education Act (1998), section 32(9), as: ". . . the impediments to education arising from social or economic disadvantage which prevent students from deriving appropriate benefit from education in schools".

In the primary sector, the identification process was based on a survey of all primary schools in May 2005, from which a response rate of more than 97% was achieved.

The analysis of the survey returns by the ERC identified the socio-economic variables that collectively best predict achievement, and these variables were then used to identify schools for participation in the School Support Programme. The variables involved are:

∙% unemployment

∙% local authority accommodation

∙% lone parenthood

∙% Travellers

∙% large families (5 or more children)

∙% pupils eligible for free books.

In the case of second-level schools, the Department supplied the ERC with centrally-held data from the Post-Primary Pupils and State Examinations Commission databases. Based on an analysis of these data, the variables used to determine eligibility for inclusion in the School Support Programme were as follows:

∙Medical card data for Junior Certificate candidates (including Junior Certificate School Programme candidates)

∙Junior Certificate retention rates by school

∙Junior Certificate exam results aggregated to school level (expressed as an OPS — "Overall Performance Scale" — score). This was based on each student's performance in the seven subjects in which s/he performed best

∙Leaving Certificate retention rates by school.

While the whole rationale behind the new programme is to ensure that the most disadvantaged schools benefit from all of the available supports, schools that are benefiting from existing schemes, including the school to which the Deputy refers will keep the extra resources — financial and human — that they are getting under these initiatives for the 2006/07 school year. After that they will continue to get support in line with the level of socio-economic disadvantage among their pupils.

A review mechanism has been put in place to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in the School Support Programme but regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the Programme. This mechanism will operate under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring that all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review.

The school to which the Deputy refers has submitted an application for review and a formal acknowledgement has issued to the school. It is anticipated that the review process will be completed before the end of the current school year.