John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 451: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason there is a difference in the implementation of the DEIS programme for rural and urban schools in respect of pupil/teacher ratio (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21406/09]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, 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 an integrated School Support Programme (SSP). DEIS brings together and builds upon a number of existing interventions in schools with concentrated levels of disadvantage.

The process of identifying schools for participation in 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. There are 876 schools in DEIS. These comprise 673 primary schools (199 Urban Band 1, 141 Urban Band 2 and 333 Rural) and 203 second-level schools.

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

In the primary sector, the identification process was based on a survey carried out by the ERC in May 2005, from which a response rate of more than 97% was achieved. The analysis of the survey returns from primary schools 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 were: % unemployment; % local authority accommodation; % lone parenthood; % Travellers; % large families (5 or more children); and % pupils eligible for free books.

The identification process was in line with international best practice and had regard to and employed the existing and most appropriate data sources available. Primary schools serving rural communities including towns with populations below 1500 are designated as rural. In relation to the supports available under the DEIS programme, the following supports are available to both urban and rural DEIS schools: additional non-pay/capitation allocation based on level of disadvantage; additional capitation for School Books; access to the School Meals Programme; access to Home, School, Community Liaison services or access to Rural Co-ordinator; and access to planning supports.

In addition to this, urban DEIS schools also benefit from: reduced class size of 20:1 in junior classes and 24:1 in senior classes (Band 1 urban schools only); allocation of administrative principal on lower enrolment and staffing figures than apply in primary schools generally; access to literacy/numeracy supports such as Reading Recovery, First Steps, Maths Recovery; and access to the School Completion Programme.

For schools other than those that benefit from lower PTR under DEIS, the mechanism used to allocate classroom teachers to primary schools is the staffing schedule and with effect from September 2009 the enrolment bands will be based on an average of 28 pupils per class teacher.