Vol. 510 No. 1
145 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for Education and Science if an early school leaving project (details supplied) in County Wexford will be given funding in relation to the £4.5 million initiative of funding announced earlier in 1999; and if there will be uniform assistance to all these projects irrespective of whether they are of urban or rural origin. [21964/99]
In June this year I announced a major new stay in school initiative. This marks a significant departure from traditional policy in that funding will be granted to schools on the basis of plans which they will be helped to design themselves. The underlying objective of the initiative is to establish a direct link between schools experiencing serious retention problems and my Department with a view to agreeing multi-annual programmes of action with clear targets, which will be matched with appropriate resources. As I stated when announcing this initiative the core point is that schools themselves need to take charge of tackling early school leaving and I will give them the supports they need to make an impact. In this regard I should add that my Department has appointed two national co-ordinators to co-ordinate the initiative and assist participating schools to formulate their retention plans and targets.
In inviting applications for the initial phase, priority will be given to schools and VEC schemes with retention rates appreciably below the national average. I expect that in the region of 50 schools will be invited to participate this year with that number being expanded in 2000 and subsequent years. Schools will be selected for invitation based on their retention rate and overall enrolment. My intention is to include as many pupils as possible who are at risk of early school leaving. Attention will be given to achieving a regional and sectoral spread when selecting the participating schools. When I announced the initiative I stated that efforts would be made to achieve a measure of regional coverage. To demonstrate this I stated my intention to include a number of schools in the Inishowen Peninsula in the first phase of the initiative, given the particular impact of the problem in that area and the desirability to provide a lead for isolated areas in testing approaches to target the problem. This remains my intention.
My Department expects to be in a position to say which schools will be invited into the first phase of the initiative very shortly.
With regard to the project mentioned in the Deputy's question I must point out that funding under the stay in school initiative will be paid directly to schools to enable them to implement their agreed multi-annual plans to retain their pupils to the end of the senior cycle. Funding will not be paid directly by my Department, under this initiative, to groups other than schools working with early school leavers.
