Vol. 500 No. 2
102 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether there is a need to develop a corps of parents to undertake outreach work in schools where there are a large number of disadvantaged parents; and if he will introduce a scheme of community school support whereby these parents could be trained and compensated. [3634/99]
The development of parents so that they can become directly involved in their children's education is a central part of the home-school-community liaison scheme which targets areas of disadvantage. It is a feature of this development that parents are trained to work with and support other parents in developing relevant skills. In this context, a programme which was designed to build the skills and capacities of parents who would become home visitors has been developed in one liaison area and disseminated to the other areas. This outreach dimension of the scheme is deemed to be an important and timely development in the provision of service in disadvantaged communities. I would add that it is my intention that the home-school-community liaison scheme will be extended to all disadvantaged schools from next September.
Significant funding is given by my Department to the National Parents' Councils, primary and post-primary, to facilitate parent training.
