Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 April 2019
176. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration has been given in the past three years to the designation of primary schools as DEIS band 2; and if consideration is being given to this at present. [15130/19]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, my Department has introduced an objective, statistics based model for assessing which schools merit inclusion in the DEIS Programme, so that all stakeholders can have confidence that we are targeting extra resources at those schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage. This new model involves a calculation of the level of disadvantage in each school, based on the socio-economic background of their pupil cohort, using centrally held data as previously outlined and is based on the geographical CSO Small Areas where the pupil cohort resides. A detailed document explaining the methodology used in the Identification process under DEIS plan 2017 is available on my Department’s website at www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/DEIS-Identification-Process.pdf.
Following an initial application of this new methodology, 79 new schools, including 66 primary schools, were brought into the DEIS programme in 2017 with a further 30 primary schools being upgraded from Band 2 to Band 1 status. These schools were assessed as having the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage.
DEIS Plan 2017 states that the improved data on the socio-demographic of schools resulting from the new identification model 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 is turn allows for the ultimate objective of allocating resources to best meet the identified need of individual schools.
Further analysis is currently being undertaken to examine other variables known to be strong predictors of educational disadvantage in the context of resource allocation. An analysis is also underway on the quality of the address data of individual schools. Until the further analysis is complete, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools.
