Eric J. Byrne
Ceist:15 Mr. E. Byrne asked the Minister for Education the plans, if any, she has for the further development of the home-school liaison scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18090/96]
Written Answers. - Home-School Liaison Scheme.
The home school community liaison scheme was expanded in the 1995-96 school year by the inclusion of an additional 49 schools at primary level and 36 schools at post primary level. This brings the total number of schools at primary level to 181 with the services of 105 local co-ordinators and at post primary level to 84 schools with the services of 83 local co-ordinators.
The White Paper on Education, Charting our Education Future, outlines the intention to continue and further develop the home school links programme in areas of disadvantage, as resources permit. All schools will be required under the provisions of the White Paper to have a formal home school links policy as part of their school plan.
The Deputy may be aware that I recently launched an important new initiative which seeks to break the cycle of educational disadvantage in selected urban and rural areas. This initiative called Breaking the Cycle seeks to discriminate positively in favour of schools in selected urban and rural areas which have high concentrations of children who are at risk of not reaching their potential in the education system because of their socio-economic backgrounds.
A new targeted programme of supports is being made available to 33 selected schools in areas of particular disadvantage in the large urban areas of disadvantage. The selected schools will receive a special package of supports including funding for materials and equipment and after school projects. The schools will also receive extra staffing to allow for a maximum pupil-teacher ratio of 15:1 in all junior classes. A newly appointed co-ordinator has been appointed who will oversee the implementation of the scheme. In addition, 25 clusters of rural-small schools with less than five teachers which have high levels of disadvantage have been selected to receive a targeted programme of supports which also includes funding for materials and equipment and after school projects. A locally based co-ordinator is being newly appointed to each of the 25 clusters. Each co-ordinator will work with families and teachers in the selected schools to combat the effects of educational disadvantage. I believe that this new initiative will help to further promote home school links in the schools that have been selected for inclusion in both the urban and rural phases of the scheme.