Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 519: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of schools in County Mayo that have submitted an application for review in relation to the review mechanism put in place to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in the school support programme under DEIS ; the outcome of those applications or when it is hoped that decisions will be available for those schools; the number of appeals that were allowed or disallowed for both primary and post primary schools in Mayo; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24661/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the action plan for educational inclusion, provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). The School Support Programme will bring together, and build upon, a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage.

The process of identifying primary and second-level schools for participation in the SSP was managed by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) on behalf of my Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the Inspectorate.

As a result of the identification process, 840 schools were invited to participate in the SSP. These comprised 640 primary schools (320 urban/town schools and 320 rural schools) and 200 second-level schools. These included 4 urban/town primary schools, 59 rural primary schools and 6 second-level schools in County Mayo. Nearly 20% of all the rural schools to benefit from the new programme nationally are in Mayo.

A review process has been put in place for primary and second-level schools that did not qualify for participation in the SSP and that regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The closing date for receipt of review applications was Friday, 31st March, 2006.

The review process applies only to those primary schools that participated in the ERC survey in May 2005 and only to those eligible second-level schools for which data were available from the relevant databases. Review requests must be evidence-based and based on the variables and reference dates used in the identification process for the SSP. Thirty-two primary schools and 15 second-level schools in County Mayo have submitted applications for review. The review process is underway and it is anticipated that it will be completed shortly.