Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
375. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the revised methodology he is using to assess schools to enter the DEIS scheme; and the way it differs from the original methodology. [13900/17]
View answerDEIS is my Department's main policy initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. The DEIS Plan for 2017 sets out our vision for future intervention in the critical area of social inclusion in education policy.
A key element of DEIS Plan 2017 is the availability of a new identification process for the assessment of schools for inclusion in DEIS using centrally held CSO and DES data.
Two separate approaches were adopted in the 2005 process for the assessment of schools across the Primary and Post Primary sectors. At Primary level a survey of school Principals was used while at Post-Primary, a combination of data from the DES Post-Primary Pupils Database, including school-level retention rates, together with exam achievement data and exam fee waiver data, which indicated that students had a medical card, from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) was used. The objective of both methods was to capture the socio-economic variables that collectively best predict the risk of educational disadvantage.
The revised identification process for DEIS 2017 is significantly more robust. The key data sources are the DES Primary Online Database (POD) and Post-Primary Online (PPOD) Databases, and CSO data from the National Census of Population as represented in the Pobal HP Index for Small Areas which is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area. Variables used in the compilation of the HP Index include those related to demographic growth, dependency ratios, education levels, single parent rate, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. This data is combined with pupil data, anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools. This data is applied uniformly across all schools in the country. Through the use of centrally held data, schools were not required to submit an application for inclusion in the programme.
