Vol. 563 No. 1
325 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason he is considering disallowing the O'Carolan College, Nobber, County Meath, from the stay at school retention initiative; the initiative he is proposing to assist the school if the SSRI programme is removed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7046/03]
In 2002 my Department introduced the school completion programme, SCP, which is a new and significantly expanded programme to deal with early school leaving incorporating the learning, experience and best practice derived from previous early school leaving initiatives, mainly the eight to 15 early school leaver initiative, ESLI, and the stay in school retention initiative at second level, SSRI. The objective of the school completion programme is to provide a range of interventions in areas of disadvantage that support the retention of young people in education. It is based on an integrated approach involving primary and post-primary schools, parents, communities and relevant statutory and voluntary agencies.
Sites for participation in the programme were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using my Department's post-primary pupils database. Based on this analysis and having regard to the funding available, 82 project sites – 65 new project sites together with the existing 17 ESLI projects – were selected to participate in the school completion programme. In addition to the 82 school completion projects, my Department is continuing to support 53 second level schools which were funded previously under the stay in school retention initiative but were not selected for the project strand of this programme on this occasion. These 53 schools, which includes the school referred to by the Deputy, will be supported under the stay in school retention strand of SCP up to 31 August 2005.
