John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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99. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the strategies to encourage and support students of DEIS schools to access third-level education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58627/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Inclusion is one of the core strategic goals for my Department. My ambition is to ensure that we provide supports and opportunities for learning to all. This means recognising the needs of vulnerable learners, the most marginalised and those with special and additional needs.

HEA Student Record System (SRS) data shows that in 2019/20, 10% of new entrants came from DEIS Schools. There is already extensive engagement between Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and DEIS schools. In an analysis carried out by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) at the start of the year, 98% of post-primary DEIS schools had links or engagement with a HEI.

My Department provides funding to seven Special Disadvantage Initiatives located in areas of socio-economic disadvantage in Dublin and Limerick cities. These projects specifically target children and young people in primary and post primary DEIS schools who are generally at risk of not reaching their full academic potential. They also seek to direct further targeted activities at children and young people who demonstrate high academic potential but may be at risk of not progressing to further or higher education for a variety of reasons.

Engagement with DEIS schools also features in Strand 3 of the Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH). PATH 3 supports HEI capacity in developing regional and community partnership strategies (including with DEIS schools) for increasing access to higher education by specified groups. A number of projects approved under PATH 3, including under the recent extension of a funding for another three years, include engagement with local DEIS schools. Similarly, a number of projects supported under Strand 1 of PATH, which is committed to increasing the diversity of initial teacher education for new entrants, involve engagement with DEIS schools. For example, several Centres collaborate with DEIS schools in mentoring programmes to improve the reach of access to higher education and in particular, access to initial teacher education. The PATH 2 bursaries now with three tiers of support take a wider range of indicators into consideration and students from DEIS schools can feature among the recipients.

Work on the development of the next National Access Plan (NAP) 2022 - 2026 is currently underway. Colleagues in my Department are working closely with the HEA on the development of the new Plan with the intention of publishing the plan in Q1 of 2022. I am delighted to have recently announced additional funding of €5m in 2022 to support the development of the new National Access Plan which I see as being more student centred, targeting specific under-represented groups and a move beyond the singular focus on access to HE with a strong focus on pathways. Entry to higher education for students attending DEIS schools will be included as a KPI in the New Plan.