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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 6

Written Answers. - Breaking the Cycle Initiative.

Helen Keogh

Question:

64 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Education if she has satisfied herself that the selection procedure for the breaking the cycle of educational disadvantage scheme yielded satisfactory results; if she has further satisfied herself that all the relevant factors were fully taken into account when schools were chosen for inclusion in this scheme; and the changes, if any, she proposes to make to the selection process in view of the information she currently has. [18059/96]

I am fully satisfied with the outcome of the selection procedure used in the Breaking the Cycle initiative. I am also satisfied that the Education Research Centre took all relevant data supplied by the schools themselves fully into account when selecting schools for inclusion in the scheme. I have no proposals to change the selection procedures used.

The Deputy will be aware that the selection procedure to which she refers was devised by the Education Research Centre following detailed studies of educational disadvantage by the centre itself and the Combat Poverty Agency.

Each applicant school was invited by the Education Research Centre to provide data relating to the pupils in its intake class under a range of objective criteria. The criteria in question had been devised by the centre in consultation with the Combat Poverty Agency. The Education Research Centre selected schools for inclusion in the scheme on the basis of the data submitted by the schools themselves.

I can readily understand that individual schools may be disappointed because they were not included in this very important initiative. I can assure the Deputy that had more resources been available, I would have been happy to include additional schools in the scheme.

As Minister for Education I must operate within available resources and in doing so must have regard to the many other competing demands across the entire special needs area. In the circumstances, the very considerable resources which I am deploying under the Breaking the Cycle initiative provide concrete evidence of my commitment to the children in question.

Finally, I would like to make it clear that the criteria under which schools were selected for participation in this scheme and the selection process itself were devised and carried out entirely by the Education Research Centre. I am satisfied that my decision to ask the centre to undertake this task was fully justified given the complexity of the issues involved and the recognised expertise of the centre and the Combat Poverty Agency in this area.

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