Vol. 445 No. 6
475 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Education the reason a school (details supplied) in County Wexford was not granted disadvantaged status; the criteria in this regard; and if this school can be reconsidered and approved. [354/94]
I assume the Deputy is referring to the allocation of posts to second level schools in disadvantaged areas. There were 55 posts available for allocation from the beginning of the 1994-95 school year. The posts were allocated to schools on the basis of criteria agreed between representatives of management, teachers, parents and my Department. Factors taken into account included the number of first year pupils within a school (i) whose parents are in receipt of either unemployment assistance or benefit; (ii) living in rented local authority housing or non-permanent accommodation; (iii) from a rural deprived background; (iv) whose parents hold a medical card; (v) living with lone parents; (vi) with significant literacy and numeracy difficulties and (vii) who drop out of school without any formal educational qualifications.
Schools were ranked in order of merit and the posts were allocated accordingly. The ranking of this school was not sufficiently high to qualify for the allocation of a post on this occasion.
All of the available posts have been allocated for the 1994-95 school year. In the event of further disadvantaged posts becoming available for allocation in the future, the position of this school will be considered.
