Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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665. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 393 of 4 March 2025, the amount of funding under the science implementation support grant received by each school in Cork north central; the name of schools that did not receive any funding within Cork north central; the amount of the committed €200 million funding to support the implementation of the digital strategy for schools to 2027 that has been allocated to date, in tabular form; if marking schemes will also be provided to teachers of tranche 1 subjects in addition to the sample examination papers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11668/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware last December, my Department announced €12m in funding for a Science Implementation Support Grant to support schools with the rollout of the revised science subjects from the next school year.

This grant was paid to all schools in the free scheme with a minimum base payment of €13,000 up to a maximum of €24,200 based on four bands of enrolment with a further 10% uplift for DEIS schools. This means DEIS schools received an additional 10% on top of the base payment for their enrolment band which was in line with previous applications of a DEIS uplift in Departmental funding models, including the grant for ICT infrastructure.

Funding details for on the Science Implementation Support Grant:

Sample examination papers for the Tranche 1 Leaving Certificate subjects will be published in the coming weeks. The State Examinations Commission (SEC) will publish in April 4 sample papers in each of the nine subjects (2 each at Higher and 2 Ordinary level) together with Irish versions of these papers (72 papers in total). This is 18 months earlier than the previous practice of publishing one sample paper at each level in year two following the introduction of a new specification.

The structure and format of sample papers, which will include guidance on the mark allocations, are intended to be of assistance to teachers in helping candidates in their preparation for the examinations.

In the interests of absolute fairness to the candidates who will be undertaking these examinations under live conditions from 2027 onwards, the SEC in line with established practice does not provide marking schemes for sample examinations papers. This is because a marking scheme cannot be finalised in the absence of a review of actual candidate work produced under live examination conditions.

The SEC will publish the marking schemes at the time of issue of the provisional examination results which will provide clarity to candidates and their teachers regarding how the work produced in the live examinations was evaluated.

The Digital Strategy for Schools 2027, which builds on the progress made under the previous Digital Strategy (2015-2020), is underpinned by an investment of some €200m included in the National Development Plan 2021-2030 providing continuity of funding following the €210m that issued to schools to support the previous strategy. To date, €100m of that funding has issued to schools - €50m in school year 2021/22 and €50m in school year 2023/24.

In addition, the Department as part of Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) under the Next Generation EU funding facility, issued a once-off grant of €50 million in December 2021 to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme in order to support those learners at risk of educational disadvantage through the digital divide.