Dan Neville
Question:314 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of children who have been unable to obtain second level education in Limerick county and city. [7951/03]
Written Answers - Early School Leavers.
The information sought by the Deputy is not readily available. However, the 2002 NESF report on early school leaving estimated that, on a national basis, approximately 1000 children are in this category. The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 which came into effect on 5 July 2002, provides for the introduction of a comprehensive school attendance service, with responsibility for school attendance being given to a newly established body – the National Educational Welfare Board. An educational welfare officer will be assigned to every school for the purposes of the Act. The Act requires schools to draw up school attendance strategies in order to promote regular attendance and to foster an appreciation of learning amongst the students. The strategy will focus on arrangements for the identification of children who are at risk of dropping out of school at an early stage so that appropriate interventions may be put in place. The board will also assist schools in discharging their responsibilities under the Act.
Finian McGrath
Question:315 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science if the education welfare service will be implemented in order to assist traveller education (details supplied). [8003/03]
Richard Bruton
Question:319 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the level of staffing which he has approved for the Education Welfare Service in 2003; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there is currently no service covering Dublin 17 despite an experience of high levels of absenteeism in some schools; and if the necessary steps will be taken to develop a service. [8037/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 315 and 319 together.
The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 which is now fully commenced, established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single national agency with responsibility for school attendance. The board appointed an interim chief executive officer in August 2002 and directors of corporate services and educational services have recently taken up their posts. The board is currently recruiting eight further head office staff and 36 former school attendance officers who were employed by local authorities under the previous legislation were transferred to the board on 5 July 2002 in accordance with Section 40 of the Act. These staff are currently providing a service in the cities of Dublin, Cork and Waterford in accordance with guidance issued to them by the board. Proposals for the recruitment of an additional cohort of educational welfare officers have now been received from the board and are currently being examined by my Department. It is intended that the first of the new staff will be appointed later this year. I have allocated a budget of €5.2 million to the new service for the current year.
The board will give priority to the areas of greatest disadvantage and the more "at risk" groups in the development of the new service. However, decisions relating to the appointment of educational welfare officers in specific areas are a matter for the National Educational Welfare Board, which is an independent statutory body.
Deputies may be aware that my Department introduced a new and significantly expanded programme in 2002 to deal with early school leaving. The school completion programme, SCP, incorporates the learning, experience and best practice derived from previous early school leaving initiatives and assimilates the eight to 15 early school leaver initiative, ESLI, and stay-in-school retention initiative at second level, SSRI. The SCP is based on an integrated approach to educational disadvantage, involving primary and post-primary schools, parents, communities and relevant statutory and voluntary agencies. Its objective is to provide a range of interventions in areas of disadvantage that support the retention of young people in education. Sites for participation in the programme were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using the Department's post-primary pupils database. Based on this analysis and having regard to the funding available, 82 project areas were selected, including two SCP project sites in the Dublin 17 area which involves one post primary school and four primary schools and a junior education training centre for travellers, together with relevant local statutory, voluntary and community agencies, the local drugs task forces and county-city development boards. The two projects in Dublin 17 have between them received allocations in excess of €300,000 under the SCP in respect of 2002-2003. This represents a valuable resource in the fight against early school leaving in the Dublin 17 area.
Mary Upton
Question:316 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the provision of a school completion programme for a school (details supplied) in Dublin 8; and the proportion of this funding which will be assigned to the actual delivery of additional services. [8004/03]
In 2002, my Department introduced the school completion programme, which builds on two earlier schemes, namely the eight to 15 year old early school leaver initiative and the stay-in-school retention initiative at second level, the pilot phases of which came to an end in August and July 2002 respectively.
The school completion programme is designed to deal with issues of both concentrated and regionally dispersed disadvantage and is a key component of the Department of Education and Science's strategy to discriminate positively in favour of children and young people who are at risk of early school leaving. Evidence generated from the pilot phases of the school completion programme shows that the most effective way of addressing educational disadvantage is through an integrated services approach. This is the approach which my Department is now taking to address the problem of early school leaving which replaces the previous process of funding individual second level schools under the stay in school retention initiative.
The school completion programme recognises that a wide variety of home, community and school-based factors can contribute to low school attainment and early school leaving. Consequently, strategies designed to address the needs of young people at risk of early school leaving must include a range of actions that impinge on these aspects of young people's lives; these strategies must therefore be holistic and child-centred by nature. This programme aims to develop local strategies to ensure maximum participation levels in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people of school going age, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes.
The school completion programme necessitates the establishment of local management groups to oversee the project at local level, involving both post-primary and primary schools together with relevant local statutory, voluntary and community bodies, the local drugs task Forces and county-city development boards. The local management groups are required to assess the needs of marginalised educationally disadvantaged young people at local level and devise integrated costed focused targeted retention plans that support these young people in their school, home and community life. Representatives of schools and agencies on the local management group must engage school staff and parents in a consultative and planning process in order that the retention plans support the needs of all young people at-risk.
Sites for participation in the programme were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using the Department's post-primary pupils database. Based on this analysis and having regard to the funding available, 82 project sites were selected, including the Dublin 8 school completion project which commenced in November 2002 and consists of three post primary schools, which previously participated in the stay in school retention initiative and seven primary schools together with the relevant local statutory and voluntary agencies. Following the submission of a three year retention plan to tackle early school leaving, my Department allocated funding to the 82 projects to implement their retention plans which offers in-school, after-school, out-of-school and holiday-time supports to young people at risk.