Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 1 Feb 2001

Vol. 529 No. 3

Written Answers. - Disadvantaged Status.

Tom Enright

Question:

72 Mr. Enright asked the Minister for Education and Science if it is intended to abolish the term disadvantaged school in favour of dealing with disadvantage in each school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2720/01]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

The development of initiatives in my Department that support schools serving areas of socio-economic disadvantage began in the early 1980s. The projects, schemes and initiatives since then have developed in their focus and in their objectives. There has been a change of emphasis in the programmes from equalising opportunity in the schools for children who were at risk of not achieving their potential in school to targeted programmes that discriminate positively in favour of those children.

Officials in my Department have been careful not to use the term "disadvantaged school" in relation to designated schools since the same quality of provision, school building,per capita funding, teacher qualifications, etc., applies to all schools. Schools have been designated by my Department in the past as serving areas of disadvantage and have been allocated additional resources on a whole-school basis as a consequence of that designation. The resources, however, had to be targeted at the specific pupils who were most at risk.

Currently, the allocation of resources to schools under the recent new programme of supports for pupils in primary school from disadvantaged backgrounds that I launched on 4 January 2001, reflects the level of concentration in those schools of pupils with characteristics that are associated with educational disadvantage and early school leaving. Those resources must be targeted at specific "at risk" pupils. The "stay in school" retention initiative – SSRI – at second level includes the schools that serve disadvantaged areas in which there is a higher incidence of early school leaving than other areas. Resources allocated to those schools must also be targeted at young people who, on the basis of clear criteria, are deemed to be most at risk of early school leaving.

"Disadvantaged", therefore, does not refer to the schools but rather to the communities they serve and to backgrounds of the pupils who attend the schools.