Vol. 478 No. 4
157 Mr. Dempsey asked the Minister for Education if she will reconsider her decision not to designate a school (details supplied) in County Meath as disadvantaged in view of the high levels of disadvantage experienced by many pupils. [11304/97]
Detailed studies of educational disadvantage conducted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre concluded that disadvantaged area supports should be confined to 16 per cent of the school-going population. The studies noted that the disadvantaged areas scheme already extends to more than 17 per cent of pupils.
In line with the findings of these studies, I recently launched the Breaking the Cycle initiative which seeks to target a special package of supports on selected urban and rural schools which have been identified as suffering serious levels of educational disadvantage. The selected schools were identified by the Education Research Centre on the basis of priority of need as reflected under a range of criteria devised by the centre.
The operation of this new initiative will be closely monitored by my Department's inspectorate and the scheme will be evaluated by the Education Research Centre. The outcome of this evaluation will provide a basis for the future development of supports for disadvantaged areas.
In the event of such further development being undertaken, the needs of the school in question will be considered.
