Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 14 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 6

Written Answers. - Breaking the Cycle Initiative.

Robert Molloy

Ceist:

10 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for Education if she has received a request from the manager of Ballyconneely national school, County Galway, for inclusion in the west Connemara cluster of schools operating under the educational disadvantage pilot scheme for small schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21183/96]

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The West Connemara cluster is one of 25 such groupings being established nationally under the rural phase of the Breaking the Cycle initiative. This initiative seeks to target special supports on selected urban and rural schools which have been identified as being particularly disadvantaged.

I must emphasise that the criteria used in selecting schools for inclusion in this initiative and the selection process itself were devised and carried out by the Education Research Centre following detailed consideration of a range of indicators of educational disadvantage.

In the case of the rural phase of the initiative, the centre concluded that the initiative should focus on schools with fewer than five teachers and whose proximity to each other was such as to create a cluster which can reasonably be served by one locally-based co-ordinator. Unfortunately, on the basis of these criteria, Ballyconneely national school was not selected by the centre for inclusion in the initiative.

Austin Deasy

Ceist:

11 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Education if she will ensure that Portlaw national school, Portlaw, County Waterford, is granted disadvantaged status in view of the difficulty being experienced by pupils and their parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20788/96]

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

The Deputy may be aware that in May 1996, I launched an important new initiative which seeks to break the cycle of educational disadvantage in selected urban and rural areas.

This initiative is based on the outcome of detailed studies of educational disadvantage conducted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre. Among the findings of these studies was a recommendation that a more targeted approach to tackling disadvantage be adopted, with resources being directed towards the most disadvantaged urban and rural areas. The studies also concluded that disadvantaged area supports should be confined to 16 per cent of the school going population. In this connection, it was noted that the disadvantaged areas scheme already extends to more than 17 per cent of pupils.

In the case of urban schools, the focus was on schools which already had disadvantaged area status and were located in the urban areas of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. The second element of the initiative focused on schools from all parts of the country with fewer than five teachers and particularly schools in rural areas which serve dispersed populations and which have concentrations of children who are at risk of not reaching their potential in the school system. Unfortunately, based on staffing and enrolment, the school referred to by the Deputy was not eligible to apply for inclusion under the new initiative.