Vol. 479 No. 3
85 Mr. Cowen asked the Minister for Education if she will arrange for replacement windows to be installed in a school (details supplied) in County Offaly; and the prospects for the inclusion of this school under the disadvantaged status scheme. [13051/97]
Under a new devolved grant scheme which came into operation this year, each school is receiving a basic grant of £2,000 plus £9 per pupil, for improvement works to buildings, services and furnishings. The school referred to by the Deputy will be paid the grant within the next week and it may use the funding to improve, or replace the windows.
The position on disadvantaged status is that since becoming Minister for Education, I have included an additional 104 primary schools in the disadvantaged areas scheme. This brings the total number of primary schools in the scheme to 320.
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 status. In the event of such further development being undertaken, the needs of the school in question will be considered.
