Vol. 394 No. 4
asked the Minister for Education the measures which have been taken to establish a system of home-school liaison at primary school level in disadvantaged areas; the number of extra teachers who are involved; and the areas of the country which are covered.
255.
asked the Minister for Education the amount of money which has been allocated to the disadvantaged primary school fund in each year since 1984.
256.
asked the Minister for Education the number of primary schools in her Department's designated disadvantaged areas; the cities and towns which are included in these disadvantaged areas; and the number of children covered by these schemes.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 254, 255 and 256 together. There are two schemes of assistance to schools in disadvantaged areas.
The first of these is a scheme of grants which, inter alia, supports home-school liaison projects undertaken by schools.
The second scheme is a scheme of additional teaching posts for schools. While schools may opt to use the additional teacher as a home-school liaison teacher, the practice almost invariably is to assign the additional teacher for class teaching purposes. I recently announced the appointment of an additional 95 teaching posts for national schools in disadvantaged areas.
The great majority of additional teaching posts are in the cities of Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
The amounts allocated to the scheme of grants have been as follows: 1984, £500,000; 1985, £500,000; 1986, £750,000; 1987, £500,000; 1988, £500,000; 1989, £500,000.
A total of 178 schools have been assisted under these schools to date and grants have been paid in respect of approximately 51,000 pupils.
The cities and towns assisted are as follows: Dublin city and county, cities of Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Sligo, towns of Dundalk, Drogheda, Athlone, Rathnew, Glenealy and Bray.
