Michael Creed
Question:247 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Education and Science the progress being made by his Department in meeting the national anti-poverty strategy aims of reducing the incidence of early school leaving. [14213/01]
Vol. 536 No. 3
247 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Education and Science the progress being made by his Department in meeting the national anti-poverty strategy aims of reducing the incidence of early school leaving. [14213/01]
My Department is committed to meeting the national anti-poverty strategy aims of reducing the incidence of early school leaving. Major preventative strategies and programmes have been introduced, comprising both special targeted initiatives and legislative measures, to combat the problem of non-school attendance and early school leaving and to promote and facilitate the retention of young people in education to completion of upper second level.
The school completion programme incorporates a comprehensive package of measures to encourage and support schools in retaining pupils to completion of senior cycle. These include: the 8-15 year old early school leaver initiative introduced in 1998; the stay in school retention initiative at second level which was launched in June 1999 – projects and schools involved in the initiatives are required to operate on a multi-agency basis establishing, where appropriate, cross community links; the expansion of the home-school community liaison scheme to all schools designated as disadvantaged; the expansion of the national educational psychological service set up in 1999 on a phased basis with a view to providing a comprehensive service for all first and second level schools.