Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
575. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Education the criteria for the STEM awards; if there is an appeal process; to detail the reason that no DEIS schools in Galway city received the awards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [57327/23]
View answerI can advise the Deputy that the awards per county were as follows;
|
Primary schools awarded grants by County |
|
Post-primary schools awarded grants by County |
|
|
Carlow |
6 |
Cavan |
2 |
|
Cavan |
7 |
Clare |
1 |
|
Clare |
10 |
Cork |
15 |
|
Cork |
43 |
Donegal |
2 |
|
Donegal |
17 |
Dublin |
18 |
|
Dublin |
80 |
Galway |
6 |
|
Galway |
36 |
Kildare |
1 |
|
Kerry |
18 |
Kilkenny |
2 |
|
Kildare |
7 |
Laois |
1 |
|
Kilkenny |
12 |
Longford |
1 |
|
Laois |
10 |
Louth |
6 |
|
Leitrim |
1 |
Mayo |
7 |
|
Limerick |
26 |
Meath |
2 |
|
Longford |
6 |
Monaghan |
2 |
|
Louth |
12 |
Offaly |
4 |
|
Mayo |
21 |
Roscommon |
2 |
|
Meath |
15 |
Sligo |
1 |
|
Monaghan |
5 |
Tipperary |
4 |
|
Offaly |
15 |
Waterford |
4 |
|
Roscommon |
13 |
Wexford |
5 |
|
Sligo |
9 |
Wicklow |
3 |
|
Tipperary |
25 |
|
|
|
Waterford |
9 |
|
|
|
Westmeath |
16 |
|
|
|
Wexford |
16 |
|
|
|
Wicklow |
8 |
|
|
In total there were 530 schools that received grants and of those 146 were DEIS schools. 42 schools in Galway which were a mix of DEIS and non-DEIS schools received grants.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) grant scheme was an action in the new STEM Education Implementation Plan published in 2023. The grant was to support schools in carrying out projects to stimulate an increased interest in STEM and included an application process as with other STEM initiatives in the past such as the STEM clusters project.
When the grant scheme was announced the Department indicated that it had funding of €1.5m available. There was phenomenal demand from schools with around 3,000 applications received. In order to determine the number of valid applications those received after the deadline were discounted. Every other application received before 5pm on the 30th of November was read and saved, leaving 2,727 schools with an ask amounting to over €25m.
When the grant scheme was announced the Department indicated that it had funding of €1.5m available. There was a phenomenal demand from schools with around 3,000 applications received. Every application received by the deadline of 5pm on the 30th November was read and processed, leaving 2,727 schools with an ask amounting of over €25m.
Given the very high number of valid applications and the budget available for the scheme, a decision was made by the Department to run a lottery, where a random number generator was used to pick out schools based on their line on the spreadsheet. The application for each school was then assessed on a case by case basis with the applications read again by the evaluation team, to ensure they met the requirements as set out in the grant call. Any school deemed not to have met the requirements was removed. The procedure was then repeated until all the budget available was allocated.
As the initial funding available at the time of call for applications was €1.5m, the Department worked to secure as much additional funding as possible, bringing the total available to €4.7m. Unfortunately, on this occasion, this additional funding fell short of the ask of over €25m. The Department is front loading the grant scheme in 2023/2024 school year and it is hoped that a further round of funding can be run this year. This means that eligible schools that were not successful this time may receive funding in the future.
It should be noted that the Department also supports STEM through other areas such as teacher professional development and the development of resources, as well as through supporting initiatives such as SciFest, ESB Science Blast, the Discover programme with Science Foundation Ireland and BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibititon.
