Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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429. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an assessment of the outcomes resulting from the 2022 expansion of the DEIS programme, including the impact on literacy and numeracy among newly included schools. [25287/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth, and for the Government. The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. It provides a targeted range of supports and is additional to the universal supports provided to all schools, such as the introduction of free school books and free hot school meals.

My department invests over €180 million annually to provide additional supports to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme which supports approximately 260,000 students.

The DEIS programme is targeted at schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage. Schools that were included in the most recent expansion of the programme in 2022 were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model.

The DEIS programme has been a success. Since it began the retention to leaving certificate levels between DEIS and non-DEIS schools have halved from 16.8 percentage points to 8.4 percentage points. International studies show that children at risk of educational disadvantage in Ireland have higher outcomes in literacy and numeracy than children from similar backgrounds in most other countries.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021 and National Assessment of Mathematics and English Reading (NAMER) 2021 highlighted that the impact of Covid-19 did not increase attainment gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools, contrary to international trends. In fact, the DEIS Plan 2017 target to increase the percentage of high achievers in second class reading in Urban Band 1 schools to 25% was met. This was a 7% increase on the 2014 NAMER results.

The success of the DEIS programme is clear: schools in the programme have significantly closed the gap with non-DEIS schools. For example, the gap in retention rates for students between DEIS and non-DEIS schools has halved from 16.8 percentage points to 8.4 percentage points since the programme began.

While the range of supports provided by the Department of Education to address educational disadvantage have had a positive effect, it was recognised in the DEIS Plan 2017 and in the OECD Review of Resourcing Schools to Address Educational Disadvantage, that further work is required to evaluate this impact and identify where changes in policy or resources allocation and use is required. The development of this Monitoring and Evaluation Framework aims to put in place a structure that allows for regular assessment of progress and increase the opportunities for the department to assess that its policies are having a positive effect on children at risk of educational disadvantage and address issues where they arise.

This framework will develop indicators to allow for the evaluation of progress and both national and international reporting of same. The ESRI are recognised by the department for their understanding of educational disadvantage, having conducted previous research on the DEIS programme, a review of the School Completion Programme and a catalogue of highly regarded research on educational disadvantage and inequalities. The Department of Education propose to undertake the development of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework in a collaborative endeavour with the ESRI.

In July 2024, the OECD Review of Resourcing Schools to Address Educational Disadvantage in Ireland found that Ireland has an education system that consistently outperforms many other OECD countries but also exhibits relative socioeconomic fairness. This review also noted the positive impact of the DEIS programme in this achievement.

The DEIS programme 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, extra resources must be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need.

As Minister, I am determined to close the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introduce more innovative solutions to tackle disadvantage. A new DEIS Plan will be published in 2025. This plan will focus on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling educational disadvantage, and working towards a more flexible system of supports to ensure that a school can receive the right support at the right time.