Niamh Smyth
Question:78. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of an application by a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4760/19]
View answerThursday, 31 January 2019
Questions (78)
Written answers
As the Deputy may be aware, the issue of this particular schools inclusion in the DEIS programme has been raised in the House before. As previously set out, there is no application process for DEIS as all schools at both Primary and Post Primary are assessed using the new identification model.
The DEIS identification process uses data from a number of sources to improve accuracy regarding the socio-demographic profile of schools resulting from the new identification model. This will have an impact not only on the assessment of schools for inclusion in the programme but also on the scaling of resources to allow for more graduated levels of support. This in turn allows for the ultimate objective of allocating resources to best meet the identified need of individual schools.
The current identification model needs to be as accurate as possible and further analysis is also required to examine other variables known to be strong predictors of educational disadvantage in the context of resource allocation. Therefore, it is not intended to extend the DEIS Programme to this school or to any other schools until this work is completed.