Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.

In March last year, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now supported in the programme.

This expansion added an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180million.

Schools that were identified for inclusion in the programme were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model, which is an objective, statistics-based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model was applied fairly and equally to all schools.

The DEIS Identification process is based on the principle of concentrated disadvantage and the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school. The DEIS identification model aimed to identify those schools with the highest levels of disadvantage or the highest proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school using the schools enrolment data and national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index which is publicly available.

It is possible for two neighbouring schools to have a different profile in terms of proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the relative weighting of disadvantage apportioned in each. The designation of neighbouring schools to DEIS or non DEIS does not mean that there is no educational disadvantage present in one school but that the concentrated level of educational disadvantage of the two schools is different.

A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie . In accordance with Circular 0019/22 schools that were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data were provided with the opportunity to have that outcome reviewed. The DEIS appeals process was applied fairly across all appellants, the window for appeals has now closed and the results are final. My Department will continue to support schools to deliver high quality, inclusive teaching and learning to students and young learners.

The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past four budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard.

My Department recognises the need to target resources to those schools who need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to all schools to tackle educational disadvantage.

The DEIS Plan is based on the premise that in order to have the maximum possible impact on providing opportunities for students most at risk of educational disadvantage, then extra resources need to be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need. This will involve further development of the existing DEIS programme, to create a more dynamic resource allocation model where levels of resources more accurately follow the levels of need identified by objective data.

To support this work my Department has invited the OECD Strength Through Diversity: Education for Inclusive Societies Project to review the current policy approach for the allocation of resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage in Ireland, this is currently ongoing and the OECD team estimate that the review will be complete in Q2 of 2024. This review will provide an independent expert opinion on the current resource allocation model for the DEIS programme and, drawing on international examples, inform a policy approach for an equitable distribution of supplementary resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage attending all schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS.

In addition to this, following the National Census 2022 held in April 2022 it is envisaged that an updated HP Deprivation Index will be generated by Pobal and will be available in Q4 of 2023. My Department will engage with Pobal in relation to this process. The updated HP Deprivation Index can be considered by my Department to inform future resource allocation to tackle educational disadvantage.