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Educational Disadvantage

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 March 2022

Thursday, 10 March 2022

Questions (136)

John Lahart

Question:

136. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Education her strategy to boost education outcomes and inclusiveness for children and young persons who are at risk of educational disadvantage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13488/22]

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Written answers

Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) is the main policy instrument of my Department to tackle educational disadvantage at school level.

The DEIS programme focuses on targeting additional resources at those schools with the highest concentrations of students who are at risk of educational disadvantage. This is based on the existence of a ‘multiplier effect’, meaning that students in these schools have been found to have less positive educational outcomes, even taking account of individual social background. There is a strong evidence base in the Irish context that the social class mix of a school matters, in particular in those urban schools with higher levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage which provides a rationale for providing targeted supports to these schools .

Schools participating in the DEIS programme have seen retention rates to Leaving Certificate improve since the introduction of DEIS - from 80.1% for the 2006 entry cohort to 84.8% for the 2014 entry cohort. The gap in retention rates between DEIS and non-DEIS schools has narrowed from a gap of 16.8% for the 2001 entry cohort to approx. 8.6% for the 2014 cohort .

I was glad yesterday to be able to announce a major expansion of the DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme that will see the programme extended to an additional 310 schools. For the first time since 2017 the DEIS programme is being significantly expanded and eligible schools will now gain access to targeted supports to address educational disadvantage. In addition 37 existing DEIS schools are being reclassified and eligible for increased supports. This will add an additional €32million to the Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023. This is the largest ever single investment in the programme and will extend additional resources to those schools most in need.

As a result of this announcement from September 2022 1,194 schools will be in the DEIS programme serving over 240,000 students.

The full list of supports and resources provided to schools in the DEIS programme is available at www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/4018ea-deis-delivering-equality-of-opportunity-in-schools/#supports-to-deis-schools

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