Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

123. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address educational disadvantage which has worsened due to the Covid-19 pandemic. [45597/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools is the main policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level.

In the 2021/22 academic year there are 884 schools in the DEIS Programme serving over 186,000 pupils - 687 Primary and 197 Post Primary.

My Department will spend over €150 million on the DEIS Programme in 2021, which includes some €26.07 million for the School Completion Programme.

The full list of supports available under the DEIS Programme for the 2021/22 school year is available on Gov.ie at the following link www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/4018ea-deis-delivering-equality-of-opportunity-in-schools/

I recently announced that a COVID Learning and Support Scheme (CLASS) has been put in place for the 2021/22 school year to help all schools mitigate the adverse impacts of Covid-19 on pupil/student learning loss and wellbeing arising from the periods of school closures in 2020 and 2021.

Under the programme, a block of additional teaching hours is being provided to each recognised school, from which schools can provide additional teaching support for the pupils/students who have experienced difficulties in settling back into school and engaging with learning.

The allocations of additional teaching hours are provided on a graduated and proportionate basis, based on school size, using the 2020/21 school enrolments data, as published on the Primary (POD) and Post Primary Online Databases (PPOD).

Enhanced allocations are also being provided for special schools and schools participating in the DEIS Programme. Schools may use the additional allocation of teaching hours in accordance with the needs of their students. This will enable schools to identify students most at risk of learning loss arising from the recent disrupted school experience and put in place specific targeted teaching supports to meet these students’ needs. The additional hours can be utilized by schools from October of this year, to the end of the 2021/22 school year.

Full detail of the programme is set out in Department circular 045/2021 which is available at www.gov.ie/en/circular/aec0a-covid-learning-and-support-scheme/.