Education Policy

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Questions (665, 666)

Emer Higgins

Question:

665. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Education when DEIS bands will next be reviewed. [16839/23]

666. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Education to review the use of Eircodes as a method of assigning DEIS status to schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16840/23]

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Written answers

Minister for Education

I propose to take Questions Nos. 665 and 666 together.

My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.

In March last year, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme benefiting 347 schools. The programme now includes over 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means 1 in 4 of all students are now supported in the programme.

This recent expansion will add an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180million.

Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme. Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie at www.gov.ie/en/publication/a3c9e-extension-of-deis-to-further-schools/#how-schools-were-selected-for-inclusion-in-deis

The DEIS identification process is based on the principle of concentrated disadvantage and the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school. The DEIS identification model aimed to identify those schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage or the highest proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school using the school's enrolment data and national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index which is publicly available.

The Pobal HP Deprivation index provides a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a small geographical area, using data compiled from the National Census. It is used by several State agencies for the identification of disadvantage, for example, in order to target resources to communities most in need. The HP index is based on the combination of three components of demographic profile, social class composition and labour market situation. More specifically, measures that are combined in the HP Index are related to demographic growth, dependency ratios, education levels, single parent rate, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. This data is combined with student enrolment data supplied by schools on the school enrolment databases (POD and PPOD), anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools. Eircodes allow for greater accuracy in identifying the relevant small area where individual students reside and therefore, the HP deprivation index associated with that small area. However the eircode itself is not an indicator; the data is taken from the Census.

The adoption of the HP index for the identification of schools for inclusion in the DEIS programme allows for a consistent approach in the allocation of resources across Departments to combat the consequences of deprivation, whether through education, health or other resourcing models of service provision. A census-based approach to resourcing schools and providing targeted funding to those most in need is used in many other OECD countries. The OECD has noted in its paper “Towards equity in school funding policies” that internationally, the use of census based approaches, provides integrity to the system and reduces the reporting burden on schools.

I am very conscious of the benefits of the DEIS programme. Analysis has shown that since the programme began in 2006, it has helped to close the gap in achievement between schools serving the highest levels of educational disadvantage and those serving populations with little or no disadvantage. It has provided children who come to education at a disadvantage with an equitable opportunity to achieve their potential in education.

The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past three budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard. As part of Budget 2023, I announced over €50 million to provide free books to primary school pupils within the free education scheme from next September. The new free primary schoolbook scheme will eliminate the cost of schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for parents. I have also further improved the staffing schedule for all primary schools to 23:1, the lowest it has ever been.

Following the National Census 2022 held on the 3rd April last, it is envisaged that an updated HP Deprivation Index will be generated by Pobal and will be available in Q3 of 2023. My Department will engage with Pobal in relation to this process. The updated HP Deprivation Index, when available, will be considered by my Department to help inform future resource allocation to tackle educational disadvantage.

The next phase of work will consider all schools, within and outside the DEIS programme and explore the overall allocation of resources to schools to tackle educational disadvantage. Part of this programme of work will involve consultation with relevant stakeholders over the coming months.

Question No. 666 answered with Question No. 665.