Vol. 469 No. 2
99 Mr. Davern asked the Minister for Education the current position with regard to an application for disadvantaged status made by Slieveardagh national school, County Tipperary; if this school will be included as one of the 25 clusters in the second phase of the new initiative in relation to disadvantaged status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17036/96]
The second phase of the breaking the cycle initiative is being targeted at schools with fewer than five teachers and particularly those in rural areas which serve dispersed populations and have concentrations of children who are at risk of not reaching their potential in the school system.
Under this phase of the initiative, supports will be made available to 25 clusters of schools. Schools from all parts of the country with fewer than five teachers were invited by the Education Research Centre to apply for inclusion in the scheme. The school mentioned by the Deputy is among those which applied to the Education Research Centre for inclusion in the scheme.
The relative need of all applicants has been assessed by the Education Research Centre on the basis of data submitted by schools under objective criteria which were devised by the centre. The data returned by the school in question will be considered in this context. The process of selecting schools for inclusion in the 25 clusters is now being finalised by the Education Research Centre. I expect to be in a position to announce details of the selected schools in the near future.
