Vol. 481 No. 6
37 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Education and Science if he intends to make any changes in the breaking the cycle scheme regarding schools in disadvantaged areas due to the fact that an anomaly exists where schools in urban disadvantaged areas received much larger allocations than schools in rural disadvantaged areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16603/97]
The Education Research Centre — ERC— following a detailed study of educational disadvantage in urban and rural settings, recommended that two different types of support means be made available to urban and rural schools under the breaking the cycle pilot initiative. In the case of the urban dimension of the pilot initiative, the ERC recommended that the focus be on schools which already had disadvantaged status and were located in the urban areas of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. A total of 33 schools were selected for inclusion in this phase. In the case of these schools, the ERC recommended that the approach which should be adopted should include the introduction of a maximum class size of 15:1 for all junior classes. In the case of the rural part of the scheme, the ERC recommended that the focus should be on schools nationwide with fewer than five teachers. In the case of these schools, the ERC recommended that the approach which should be adopted should include the appointment of a locally-based co-ordinator to serve each cluster of rural schools. A total of 123 rural schools were selected and these are grouped into 25 clusters.
All the selected schools, both urban and rural, receive special funding for the purchase of materials and equipment and to support out of school initiatives.
The ERC has been commissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of both dimensions of the pilot initiative. One of the key issues to be covered in the review will be the question of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the two distinct approaches, urban and rural, which are being tested under the initiative.
