Vol. 576 No. 3
79 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for Education and Science if extra resources will be given to the most disadvantaged schools in order to target dysfunctional and disruptive pupils and to ensure that counselling and safety strategies are put in place. [29581/03]
My overall approach to tackling educational disadvantage is set in the context of the Government's National Action Plan Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, 2003-2005, and the latest social partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress, which contains a special initiative focused on literacy, numeracy and early school leavers.
I recognise the importance of early intervention as a means of preventing future educational disadvantage and at pre-school level my Department continues to support a number of early intervention programmes, including the early start project and the Rutland St. pre-school project, which caters for pupils aged three to four years who are most at risk in areas of social disadvantage.
At primary school level, my Department has a number of programmes in place to counter educational disadvantage such as the early start pre-school programme, the disadvantaged areas scheme, the home school liaison scheme, Breaking the Cycle and the giving children an even break, GCEB, programme and a specific pilot project aimed at tackling disruptive behaviour, namely, the support teacher project which has 41 support teachers in 47 selected primary schools since 1995. The support teacher has a specific role in supporting the development of school policy on children's behaviours and formulating management strategies for the support of children experiencing behavioural difficulties.
All second level schools which have been designated as disadvantaged receive concessionary teacher post allocations. Such schools are also allocated additional resources to facilitate their participation in the home school community liaison scheme. Over 200 schools are involved in the scheme at present.
The school completion programme provides a range of interventions in areas of disadvantage that support the retention of young people in education and 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. My Department also allocates resource teacher support and special needs assistant support to primary, second level schools and vocational education committees to cater for students with special educational needs, including students suffering from emotional or behavioural disturbance. The National Educational Psychological Service is also available as a support service to schools for individual students who encounter difficulties.
