Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 15 May 1996

Vol. 147 No. 6

Adjournment Matters. - Disadvantaged School Status.

Mr. Maloney

About 560 boys attend Scoil Cholmcille. It is the town school in the parish of Conwell and Leck. This parish has now divided resulting in a situation whereby all the local authority housing is in the school area of Scoil Cholmcille while the new church and the two associated schools have no local authority housing whatsoever. In relation to the characteristics of the school going population, Scoil Cholmcille has an increasing number of children from dysfunctional families, social and financial deprivation, inadequate parenting and, in many cases, a poor home environment. I am also concerned about the increasing number of children attending this school who are in need of remedial help.

In October 1995 the results of the micra T level that was administered to the first classes showed that 17 children from a class of 36 had a standard score of 90 or below; in the second classes 12 children out of 34 had a score of 90 or below while in the other class eight children out of 33 had a standard score of 90 or below. Two more children from this group need remedial help with specific learning difficulty.

Up to 30 per cent or more of the children come from local authority housing with up to 10 per cent living in flats. About 20 to 30 per cent of the parents would have medical cards and up to 30 per cent would be in receipt of unemployment benefit. A large number of the children come from single parent families and quite a number from broken marriages or families with alcohol problems and families in poverty. My figures are conservative as it is hard to get correct figures because people are not always prepared to speak about their circumstances.

The town of Letterkenny has seen phenomenal growth over the past number of years and such unplanned and largely unforeseen growth has brought all the social problems associated with a major growth area. We have our share of crime, vandalism, one parent families, poor housing, high rents, drug related problems, etc. The school is one of the few with a resource teacher. The resource teacher is burdened with children from other schools which do not have this service. This places a great burden on the resource teacher who, because of the numbers, can only deal with children who have reading problems.

The other schools in the town have seen huge increases in enrolment over the past two to three years but their intake has almost exclusively been from the better off families in the town. As a direct result of this Scoil Cholmcille will be losing a teacher this year whereas, because of its changing status in the community I believe it should be entitled to an extra teacher.

I appeal to the Minister to grant disadvantaged status to Scoil Cholmcille in Letterkenny and allow it to hold on to the teacher it has rather than lose one at the end of the year. The teaching staff has always given outstanding service to the local community and it is imperative that everything possible should be done to help.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Ms McManus)

I am aware that the school in question has sought disadvantaged area status. The disadvantaged areas scheme was last expanded in 1994 when an additional 54 primary schools were included. The needs of the school in question were considered on that occasion. However, having regard to the level of competing demands from other schools at that time, the needs of this school were not considered sufficiently pressing to warrant its inclusion on that occasion.

Traditionally, schools have been selected for inclusion in the disadvantaged areas scheme on the basis of priority of need as reflected by a range of socio-economic indicators. The indicators in question were developed by a working group comprised of representatives of the Department of Education, schools management and the INTO and have been in operation for some years. Factors taken into account included the incidence of unemployment; local authority housing occupancy and medical card holding among the parents of the children concerned. Account was also taken of the views of the Department's primary inspectorate on the relative levels of need between applicant schools and the prevailing pupil-teacher ratios of the schools.

In 1995, the Minister for Education commissioned the Combat Poverty Agency to conduct a detailed review of our current approaches to addressing the problem of educational disadvantage. The Minister's decision to commission this study arose from a concern to ensure that our supports were properly targeted and that children with real need were in a position to benefit from the scheme. The criteria used in selecting schools for special support and the nature of the supports provided were among the issues addressed in the study.

The report presented by the Combat Poverty Agency was one of the most comprehensive studies of educational disadvantage ever undertaken in the State. It examined the concept of educational disadvantage as it impacted on schools in the education system. It reviewed the procedures in place to identify and address educational disadvantage. The report also evaluated the effectiveness of current approaches using a wide range of national and international research data.

While the report recognised the very considerable advances which have been made in alleviating the effects of educational disadvantage, it also made a series of comments and recommendations aimed at improving current arrangements. Among the key issues raised in the report was a concern that, under the current criteria, the scheme did not have due regard to rural and dispersed disadvantage. It was recommended that the criteria be amended to better reflect educational disadvantage as manifested in rural settings as well as urban settings. It also recommended that a more targeted approach be adopted whereby more generous resources would be directed towards the most disadvantaged urban and rural areas.

In response to the Combat Poverty Agency report, the Minister for Education recently launched a new targeted initiative which aims to break the cycle of educational disadvantage in selected urban and rural areas. Schools will be selected for support under this new initiative by reference to new selection criteria which have been developed by the Education Research Centre. The new criteria take on board the recommendations of the Combat Poverty Agency and address educational disadvantage in both urban and rural settings. The initiative will have an urban and a rural dimension.

For urban schools, a targeted programme of supports will be made available to 25 selected large schools in designated areas of disadvantage in the Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway urban areas. In each of the selected schools there will be a maximum of 15 pupils in all junior classes. The schools will also have access to special grant assistance for the purchase of books and materials. Pupils attending these schools will attract enhanced capitation funding at a rate of £75 per pupil. A newly appointed co-ordinator will support the development of the programme in the selected schools.

It is also intended that a special initiative will focus on schools with fewer than five teachers and particularly schools in rural areas which are serving dispersed populations and which have concentrations of disadvantaged children. In this case, supports will be made available to 25 clusters of schools. Each cluster will be served by a newly appointed co-ordinator who will work with the families and teachers involved. Children attending schools in selected clusters will attract a special capitation rate of £75 per pupil. The schools will also attract special grant assistance for the purchase of books and other materials. The Education Research Centre has been commissioned to contact the target schools and invite applications for consideration for support under the new initiative. It is expected that this exercise will commence in the near future.

The Seanad adjourned at 8.30 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 16 May 1996.