I wish to raise the issue of the stay in school retention initiative in Coláiste Mhuire, Johnstown, County Kilkenny, which is to have its funding cut before the completion of the programme. The programme commenced in 2000 with funding of €50,800 per annum and the school completion programme was introduced in 2002 for the 53 schools not included in the programme. The SSRI funding is to be phased out over three years with full funding this year, half funding next year and a quarter funding in 2004-05. This funding is critical to the development of many of the services and initiatives that help to retain pupils in the school. Since its inception the scheme has been beneficial in several ways. It has succeeded in retaining disadvantaged students over the past two years and has enabled the staff to provide smaller classes, homework clubs, meals, extra curricular activities such as music, dance, summer camps for incoming first years, revision courses at Easter and so on.
The staff inform me that they were beginning to make inroads into the poor attendance record for some students at junior cycle but continue to have serious problems at senior cycle. The number of students doing the leaving certificate is approximately 50% of the first year intake. Only 6% of the children's parents sat the leaving certificate and the SSRI was helping to break the cycle of poverty. The region is classified as disadvantaged in north-west Kilkenny in several respects – agriculturally, economically and socially.
Scrutiny of the school records reveals that early school leaving had been a tradition in the local community which the SSRI was addressing. Many parents have expressed a desire to see the homework clubs continue. They realise how beneficial they have been to their sons and daughters. Many of these parents did not complete second level education and now realise the mistake they made and do not want this to happen to another generation. Johnstown community college serves a wide geographical area. Its feeder school is Urlingford national school.
Urlingford has category 5 status in health board terms in that it has the highest number of medical card holders per head of population of any town in County Kilkenny. The entire allocation of SSRI money was used for the benefit of the students only in the Johnstown area. The programme addresses disadvantage and social exclusion – we hear a lot from this Government about what it is doing for social exclusion. It assists in the process of community development through the involvement of students and their parents in developing and devising the SSRI plan. The plan has helped the community development group in Urlingford, one of the feeder school areas, to develop a homework club for sixth class students in that school.
There is disappointment at the announcement and the letter to the school authorities from the Department of Education and Science, that funding is being slashed for the next school year by 50%, in spite of the benefits I have outlined to the educational attainment of the students and to the presence of an initiative which helps them to stay in school. It is disappointing that the Department has seen fit to make this draconian cut in funding for a scheme that was successful and it demonstrates once again that cuts in public expenditure are hitting people in disadvantaged areas hardest. These are the people who can least afford to bear these cuts if they are to better themselves through educational attainment. If we have any social values they should enshrine equality of opportunity in education. The SSRI and the school completion programme are important schemes to ensure that children stay in school, that they better themselves through education and that they have the best chance of getting suitable employment at the end of that scheme. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that he makes the necessary recommendations and brings to the attention of the Minister of Education and Science the need to retain full funding for Coláiste Mhuire in Johnstown, in the interests of the pupils and their future careers.
