Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 November 2014
468. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) in County Mayo has been considered in the ongoing evaluation of DEIS by the educational research centre for inclusion in DEIS; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43068/14]
View answerAn extensive identification process to select schools for inclusion in DEIS was conducted in 2005. In spite of reminders, a completed survey form was not received at that time from the school concerned and therefore it could not be assessed for participation in DEIS. Further, an appeal mechanism was put in place in 2006 to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in DEIS but regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage which was of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. This school did not apply for an appeal of their DEIS ranking.
Many representations have been made to my Department and to my predecessors, by and on behalf of the school, seeking its inclusion in DEIS. These representations were unsuccessful. It should be noted that none of the existing schools in the country, which were unsuccessful in the initial identification and subsequent review processes, were ever admitted into the DEIS programme, i.e. there has been no additionality to the original DEIS programme.
My key priority is to continue to prioritise and target resources at schools with the most concentrated levels of disadvantage and given the current economic climate and the ongoing challenge to meet significant targets on reducing public expenditure, there is no capacity to provide for the inclusion of additional schools in DEIS at this time.
The focus of the ongoing evaluation of DEIS is to ensure its successful implementation and that the best possible approaches to measuring progress and outcomes at both local and national level are being used. To that end, at a seminar in May of this year, my predecessor Minister Quinn announced plans to commission one further piece of research in relation to DEIS which aims to collate all the evaluation work to date on the DEIS policy. This report will inform future policy development in relation to educational disadvantage, including the DEIS programme.
The current focus of my Department is on this ongoing evaluation and distilling the learning from all the research to date while awaiting the outcome of the aforementioned report to inform future policy on educational disadvantage.
