Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2004
110 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Education and Science the progress on the Fianna Fáil manifesto promise that the Government will ensure that reducing absenteeism and early school leaving is a core priority over the period of Government. [14114/04]
View answerMy Department's commitment to tackling absenteeism and early school leaving is reflected in the national anti-poverty strategy, the national action plan against poverty and social exclusion, 2003-2005 and the latest social partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress, which contains a special initiative on tackling educational disadvantage: literacy, numeracy and early school leavers.
My Department's approach to tackling absenteeism and early school leaving comprises legislative and curricular reforms as well as preventative interventions. The Education (Welfare) Act was fully commenced on 5 July 2002. Under the Act, the National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, was established to ensure that every child attends school regularly or otherwise receives an education. To discharge its responsibilities, the board is developing a nationwide service to provide welfare-focused services to children, families and schools. At this stage of its development, the aim of the board is to provide a service to the most disadvantaged areas, including areas designated under the Government's RAPID programme and most at-risk groups. In addition, the board will follow up on urgent cases nationally where children are not currently receiving an education.
As provided for under section 10 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, my Department is working with the board to ensure that any opportunities for integrated working between educational welfare officers and staff on other educational disadvantage programmes whose work involves a school attendance element, such as the school completion programme, the home school community liaison scheme, and the visiting teachers for Travellers service, are exploited to the full.
My Department operates a number of disadvantaged programmes, which provide additional supports for children in primary and post-primary schools from disadvantaged backgrounds who are most at risk of educational disadvantage and early school leaving. The school completion programme is a key component of my Department's strategy to discriminate positively in favour of children and young people who are at risk of early school leaving. The programme is based on an integrated cross-community approach to tackling early school leaving. There are currently 82 projects involving 404 schools — 295 primary and 109 post-primary — participating in the school completion programme.
With regard to curriculum reform, my Department's strategies have included widening the educational experience available to students. These strategies aim to achieve a greater level of inclusiveness in curricular provision through such programmes as the junior certificate schools programme, the leaving certificate vocational programme, vocational preparation and training and the leaving certificate applied.
A detailed review of all educational disadvantage initiatives is nearing completion and this will impact on existing schemes. I hope to announce the outcome of this review shortly.
