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Educational Disadvantage.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2006

Tuesday, 4 July 2006

Questions (640)

John Perry

Question:

652 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Education and Science if she has received correspondence from an association (details supplied) in County Leitrim regarding the review of the DEIS programme; when a review will take place in view of the new figures submitted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25653/06]

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Written answers

DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the action plan for educational inclusion, provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). The School Support Programme will bring together, and build upon, a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage.

The process of identifying primary and second-level schools for participation in the SSP was managed by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) on behalf of my Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the Inspectorate.

As a result of the identification process, 840 schools were invited to participate in the SSP. These comprised 640 primary schools (320 urban/town schools and 320 rural schools) and 200 second-level schools.

Schools that did not qualify for the new programme will keep the extra resources they are getting under existing schemes for the 2006/07 school year and after that they will continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils.

A review process has been put in place for both primary and second-level schools. The review process applies only to those primary schools that participated in the ERC survey in May 2005 and only to those eligible second-level schools for which data were available from the relevant databases. The school referred to by the Deputy has submitted a review application. It is anticipated that the review process will be completed shortly.

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