Michael Ring
Question:106 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, he has to ensure that disadvantaged schools in rural areas are given parity with disadvantaged schools in urban areas. [17498/97]
Written Answers - Disadvantaged Status.
The support measures made available to urban and rural schools under Breaking the Cycle were recommended by the Education Research Centre (ERC) following a detailed study of educational disadvantage in urban and rural settings.
In the case of the urban dimension of the pilot project, the ERC recommended that the focus be on schools which already had disadvantaged status and were located in the urban areas of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. A total of 33 schools were selected for inclusion in this phase. In the case of these schools, the ERC recommended that the approach which should be adopted should include the introduction of a maximum class size of 15:1 for all junior classes.
In the case of the rural part of the scheme, the ERC recommended that the focus should be on schools nationwide with fewer than five teachers. In the case of these schools, the ERC recommended that the approach which should be adopted should include the appointment of a locally-based co-ordinator to serve each cluster of rural schools. A total of 123 rural schools were selected and these are grouped into 25 clusters.
All the selected schools, both urban and rural, receive special funding for the purchase of materials and equipment and to support out-ofschool initiatives.
The ERC has been commissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of both the rural and urban dimensions of this pilot project. As part of this review, the appropriateness and effectiveness of the two distinct approaches, urban and rural, will be examined.