"Giving Children an Even Break" subsumes the previous process of designation of schools that serve areas of educational disadvantage and my Department's approach is now refined to ensure that the individual ‘at risk' pupils are targeted. Rather than the old method of designating additional schools, my Department now provides support that is commensurate with the levels of concentration in schools of pupils with characteristics that are associated with educational disadvantage and early school leaving.
Primary schools participating in "Giving Children an Even Break" are in receipt of a range of additional supports including teacher posts and other non-teaching supports to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils. The additional supports to be provided reflect the level of concentration of pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in each school invited to participate in the Programme.
These levels of disadvantage were established as a result of a comprehensive survey of primary schools carried out by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) in March/April 2000 at the request of my Department. Over 2,300 primary schools identified as having pupils enrolled with characteristics of disadvantage are participating in "Giving Children an Even Break".
Any school in which there was at least one pupil which satisfied any of the criteria associated with socio-economic disadvantage is entitled to additional resources under "Giving Children An Even Break". Resources are allocated to schools on a sliding scale and schools with greater proportions of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are allocated proportionally more resources than those with fewer numbers of such pupils.
Every participating school is entitled to a special €63.49 per capita grant in respect of the percentage of pupils with diadvantaged characteristics and schools receive a minimum of €952.30 per annum. A total of 157 schools in Donegal are currently in receipt of such funding under "Giving Children An Even Break".
Schools categorised as urban in "Giving Children an Even Break" with the highest concentrations of at risk pupils are supported, where necessary, through staff allocations to implement reduced pupil/teacher ratios of 20:1 in junior classes (infants through second class) and 27:1 in senior classes (third through sixth class). There are three schools in Donegal included in this category.
Schools categorised as rural with the highest concentrations of at risk pupils have been allocated the services of a teacher coordinator who will work in clusters of four or five schools. There are 97 schools in Donegal included in rural clusters. In addition, rural schools whose geographical locations did not facilitate inclusion in clusters are receiving grants to cover teaching services. Two schools in Donegal are included in this category.
One of my key concerns in relation to tackling disadvantage is to improve the level of integration between the various educational disadvantage programmes operated by my Department. In this regard, I have requested the Educational Disadvantage Committee, established in March 2002 under the Education Act, 1998, to undertake a "root and branch" review of all of the programmes in order to ensure optimum synergy and integration between them. The Committe is currently engaged in this review.
Details on the number of schools located in Donegal included in "Giving Children An Even Break" in previous years will be forwarded to the Deputy directly.