: There has been ongoing progress with regard to the areas of action identified in the NESF's report on early school leaving.
Among the key areas focused on by NESF were the need for early educational intervention and the support of children from disadvantaged areas. In this connection I recently announced my intention of setting up a National Forum of Early Childhood Education. This consultative process will allow all interested bodies in this field to put forward proposals aimed at co-ordinating and resourcing services so as to ensure equal access and opportunity for all children of pre-school age. The output from the forum will inform my policy decisions in relation to the development of the Early Start Pre-school Pilot Project.
The breaking the cycle pilot scheme represents an important component in the ovarall effort to combat educational disadvantage. The effectiveness of this scheme as a mechanism for combatting disadvantage is being evaluated by the Educational Research Centre on an ongoing basis. An interim report is expected from the Educational Research Centre by December 1997. The findings of this report will make a valuable contribution to the further development of responses in this area.
With regard to education services for traveller children, an additional five teacher posts have been allocated to the visiting teacher service for travellers for the current school year. In addition, an internal departmental committee has been established to co-ordinate the delivery of education services to travellers.
The NESF report sets out clearly the link between poor education performance and youth unemployment. With a view to retaining pupils in the education system, and thereby improving education performance, it is necessary to cater for a varying range of aptitudes and abilities. To this end, the restructuring of the curriculum at second level is continuing. Included in the restructuring are the revision of syllabuses and the expansion of innovative programmes such as the junior certificate elementary programme, the leaving certificate applied and the leaving certificate vocational programme. A review of the primary curriculum has been under way for some time and is nearing completion.
In response to the NESF report, and as part of the mid-term review of the Structural Funds, new initiatives have been agreed for implementation in 1998 and 1999 as follows: