Vol. 472 No. 3
200 Miss Coughlan asked the Minister for Education whether Lifford national school, County Donegal, will be reconsidered for disadvantage status and/or a concessionary teacher; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23285/96]
I have no plans at present to extend disadvantaged area status to additional primary schools. The Deputy may be aware that I recently launched an important new initiative which seeks to break the cycle of educational disadvantage in selected urban and rural areas.
This initiative is based on the outcome of detailed studies of educational disadvantage conducted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the education research centre. Among the findings of these studies was a recommendation that a more targeted approach be adopted, with resources being directed towards the most disadvantaged urban and rural areas. The studies also concluded that disadvantaged area supports should be confined to 16 per cent of the school-going population. In this connection, it was noted that the disadvantaged area scheme already extends to more than 17 per cent of pupils.
Under the "Breaking the Cycle" initiative, a targeted programme of special supports is being made available to selected urban and rural schools. In the case of urban schools, the focus was on schools which already had disadvantaged area status and were located in the urban areas of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.
The second element of the initiative focused on schools from all parts of the country with fewer than five teachers and particularly schools in rural areas which serve dispersed populations and which have concentrations of children who are at risk of not reaching their potential in the school system.
Unfortunately, based on staffing and enrolment, the school referred to by the Deputy was not eligible to apply for inclusion under the new initiative. The staffing of a national school for a particular year is determined by the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous year.
The enrolment of this school was 148 pupils on 30 September 1995. This enrolment warrants a staffing of a principal and four assistants for the 1996-97 school year. In addition, the school also has the services of a shared remedial teacher. Currently, there is no basis for the allocation of additional teaching resources to the school.
