Gerry Reynolds
Question:421 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason a primary school (details supplied) in County Leitrim was not successful in its application for a disadvantaged status grant. [9454/01]
Written Answers. - Disadvantaged Status Grant.
The Deputy will be aware that last January I launched a major new programme entitled Giving Children An Even Break to deal with educational disadvantage in primary schools. The programme will be run over a three year period and will cost £26 million. The programme involves the creation of over 200 new primary teaching posts and the allocation of cash grants to primary schools in respect of disadvantaged pupils.
The schools targeted under the programme were identified through a comprehensive and objective survey of all primary schools carried out in March-April 2000 by the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra, on my Department's behalf. All primary schools were invited to complete the survey questionnaire and over 75% of primary schools participated and returned completed survey forms to the ERC.
There are separate urban and rural dimensions to the new programme and the school in question has been included in the rural dimension. The school will receive supplementary grant aid of £750 in respect of the current school year towards providing additional educational supports for the pupils concerned.
Where individual schools are concerned about the outcome of the survey in respect of their school, they may make a submission to my Department outlining their circumstances. These submissions will be referred to the ERC for consideration. The position of these schools will then be considered further.