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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 7 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 2

Written Answers. - Early School Leavers.

Gay Mitchell

Ceist:

578 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on the contents of a report, Early School Leaving in Cherry Orchard, What's the Problem?; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7593/02]

I have received the report to which the Deputy refers. Early school leaving is not a simple matter to resolve and this is confirmed by the contents of the report to which the Deputy refers. Interventions to combat early school leaving require time to make an impact and it is for this reason that my Department has initiated a programme comprising both legislative measures and special targeted initiatives to combat the problem of non-school attendance and early school leaving.

The recently enacted Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, will replace and reform current school attendance legislation. The Act provides for the establishment of a national educational welfare board and a nationwide educational welfare service, with a view to ensuring that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives an adequate level of education. I have given approval for the recruitment of a chief executive officer for the new educational welfare service and the recruitment process is well advanced. The service will be implemented on a phased basis, in line with a plan being developed by the board. It is my intention that the new educational welfare service will, as soon as possible, cover the entire country.

It is also important that we offer curricular choice which meets the needs of the diversity of pupils in our second level schools. The junior certificate schools programme and the leaving certificate applied are two programmes which aim to achieve a greater level of inclusiveness in curricular provision. Other programmes involve the allocation of additional teacher posts and funding to primary and post-primary schools serving pupils from disadvantaged families. The home-school-community scheme at both primary and post-primary levels aims to build relationships between schools and families that will foster an appreciation of education and encourage greater participation in school. All schools serving the area referred to in this report, both primary and post-primary are included in this scheme.

An additional 2000 places were also provided across FÁS and the vocational education committees on youthreach-Traveller programmes for young people who have already left school, allied with guidance counselling, psychological and child care supports. In addition, my Department currently supports two initiatives aimed at increasing the retention of pupils in school, namely, the eight to 15 early school leaver initiative and the stay in school retention initiative at second level. Four of the post-primary schools in the area referred to in the report are included in the stay in school retention initiative.

Significant funding has been made available to my Department under the National Development Plan, 2000-2006, to address the problem of early school leaving. I have provided a total of €22.5 million for school completion initiatives in 2002. This will facilitate a significant expansion that will focus on areas with the greatest pupil retention difficulties as identified through my Department's post-primary pupil database. In this regard, proposals are under consideration in my Department and I expect to be in a position to make a further announcement on this matter shortly. It is only by sustained action across a number of fronts, curricular, legislative and direct support, that we will make progress in relation to this serious social problem.
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