John Ellis
Question:424 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will consider granting disadvantaged status to a school (details supplied) in County Leitrim. [4294/02]
Written Answers. - Disadvantaged Status.
The Deputy may be aware that last year I launched a major new programme, Giving Children An Even Break, to deal with educational disadvantage in primary schools. The new programme replaces the previous process of designation of schools that serve areas of educational disadvantage. The new programme will be run over a three year period and will cost some €33 million with the allocation of over 200 teaching posts. 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. There are separate urban and rural dimensions to the new programme.
The school in question has been included in the rural dimension and is eligible to receive supplementary grant aid of €952 in respect of the 2001-2002 school year towards providing additional educational supports for the pupils concerned. Rural schools with the highest concentration of pupils with characteristics that are associated with educational disadvantage were clustered into groups of four to five and each cluster is entitled to the services of a teacher-co-ordinator to work with the schools in relation to the needs of the pupils concerned. The school in question was not considered eligible for clustering, based on the level of concentration of at risk pupils in the school as reflected in the Educational Research Centre survey outcome.
The position of this school will fall for consideration again in any future expansion of the programme.