Vol. 507 No. 4
256 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Science the proposals, if any, he has to expand disadvantaged area supports to schools which continue to experience socio-economic difficulties; and if he will give further consideration to granting disadvantaged status to St. Mary's pri mary school, Dungarvan, County Waterford. [17123/99]
I announced details of a major new initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. This initiative involves expenditure of £57 million over the next two years and is aimed at addressing educational disadvantage at all levels in the education system. It represents the largest ever programme of its type in this country and it is my intention to build further on this initiative in the years ahead.
My Department has a number of pilot programmes in place at present, including early intervention measures which are targeted specifically at areas of serious disadvantage. The purpose of the programmes is to test models of response with a view to their possible integration into the mainstream education system after proper evaluation.
The last general expansion of the disadvantaged areas scheme at primary level took place in 1994. The school referred to by the Deputy applied for inclusion on that occasion but did not rank sufficiently high in terms of priority of need to secure inclusion in the scheme at that time.
A study of educational disadvantage conducted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre in 1996 concluded that disadvantaged status should be confined to 16 per cent of the schoolgoing population. The study noted that such status had already been granted to 17 per cent of pupils. As an alternative to extending the disadvantaged areas scheme to additional schools, the study recommended that available resources should be targeted on the most disadvantaged schools.
The Breaking the Cycle pilot project was subsequently introduced to deliver the sort of targeted support recommended in the study. The operation of this project is being closely monitored by my Department's inspectorate and the project is being evaluated by the Education Research Centre.
I assure the Deputy that the needs of the school to which he refers will be fully considered in the context of any additional initiatives which may be undertaken to address educational disadvantage.
