Written Answers. - Educational Disadvantage.
Brian O'Shea
Question:
67
Mr. O'Shea
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
the initiatives, if any, he has introduced since coming to office which are specific to schools in areas of disadvantage; his views on the issue of targeting education spending in areas of greatest need as opposed to general initiatives applicable to all schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[25167/99]
Since my appointment as Minister for Education and Science I have taken a number of significant initiatives to address educational disadvantage at all levels in the system.
In December, 1998 I announced a major £57 million package of measures to address the issue of educational disadvantage. The measures in question included the extension of the remedial teacher service to every first and second-level school in the country and the extension of the home-school-community liaison service to all first and second-level schools with disadvantaged status. Both of these developments were put in place from the commencement of the current school year.
Also, in 1998 I introduced the eight to 15 year old early school leavers programme. This programme, which is currently operating in 14 disadvantaged areas, is testing models of response to the problem of early school leaving. The objective is to integrate successful models into mainstream policy and practice. A total of £3.68 million is being expended on this programme over the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 school years.
In addition, I have recently introduced a new "Stay in School" initiative which will focus on developing programmes to encourage pupils to remain in second level schools. A total of £12.5 million will be expended on this initiative over the next three years and 58 schools have recently been selected to participate in the scheme.
This year, provision was made for the allocation of 225 additional teachers to second level schools. This, together with the retention of 130 teachers who would otherwise have been redeployed, has enabled us to bring all disadvantaged second level schools into the home-school-community liaison scheme.
Since January, 1999 the local contribution for capital works in respect of disadvantaged schools is capped at £10,000.
While I will continue to make every effort to improve the level of resources made available to all schools, I am particularly anxious that children from disadvantaged backgrounds should be given every possible assistance to derive maximum benefit from the education system. I do not regard these objectives as mutually exclusive.
One of my concerns with the present approach to addressing educational disadvantage is that it lacks the necessary flexibility to target individual pupils or small pockets of disadvantage within the system. The tendency has been to target available resources on schools with the greatest number of disadvantaged pupils. While such schools undoubtedly deserve our support, this approach has tended to ignore the needs of other schools which have lesser but nonetheless serious needs of their own.
My objective is to develop a more flexible system which will continue to support schools with large concentrations of disadvantaged pupils but will also be responsive to the needs of schools with individual or small groups of disadvantaged pupils throughout the country.
