Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2024
208. Deputy Joe McHugh asked the Minister for Education the STEM grant funding process for schools, following the recent announcement of €4.7 million; how unsuccessful schools can ensure that STEM is made a key learning area in the curriculum without the adequate STEM resources; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5557/24]
View answerThe STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) grant scheme was an action in the new STEM Education Implementation Plan published in 2023. The grant is 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.
As you are aware the initial funding available at the time of the call for applications was €1.5 million. Given the high demand from schools, the Department worked to secure as much additional funding as possible, bringing the total available to €4.7 million. Unfortunately, on this occasion, the funding fell short of the ask of over €25 million. Given the very high number of valid applications (2,727) and the budget available for the scheme, a decision was made by the Department to run a lottery on this occasion. Each of the applications were read and logged with any invalid applications removed. They were then subject to the lottery system. Any school that succeeded in the lottery system was assessed with regards to the requirements as set out in the call for grant applications.
The promotion of STEM and digital learning within our education system is a key priority for the Department of Education, and is reflected in multiple strategy documents, such as the STEM Education Policy Statement, Digital Strategy for Schools, Action Plan for Education, Ireland’s National Skills Strategy, Arts in Education Charter, and the National Strategy: Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life.
Under the STEM Education Policy Statement 2017-2026 my Department continues to provide support for STEM including STEM related curricular reform, ongoing provision of STEM professional development by the Department of Education support services, development and publication of guidelines for STEM partnerships between schools and business/industry, partnership with Science Foundation Ireland to support education and public engagement projects in STEM through the SFI Discover Programme, development of the SFI ‘Curious Minds’ programme and ongoing support of informal STEM education projects such as SciFest, BTYSTE, Science Blast and iWish.
The Department continues to provide support in relation to the redevelopment of the Primary curriculum. In the STEM area the new Primary Mathematics Curriculum (PMC) was published in September of this year. A suite of high-quality professional development supports is being provided by the Department, together with Oide and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to support the engagement, collaboration and professional learning of school leaders and teachers to become familiar with, and implement, the PMC. The support includes a comprehensive range of face-to-face and online supports to introduce, implement and embed the Primary Mathematics Curriculum over the course of an extensive three-phase continuous professional development (CPD) framework. This follows on from the support provided for the Primary Language Curriculum. Support for the other areas which will be introduced to schools in the coming years will provided by the Department.
The Department is front loading the grant scheme in 2023/2024 school year with all monies available having been allocated to schools. It is hoped that a further round of funding can be run this year which means that eligible schools that were not successful this time may receive funding in the future. The amount of funding available will depend on the priorities and demands on the Department’s allocated budget. In relation to any future funding that becomes available, the Department will be in contact with schools.
