Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2002

Vol. 554 No. 5

Written Answers. - Departmental Schemes.

Tony Gregory

Ceist:

681 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Education and Science if O'Connell Primary School, Dublin 1, will be included in the school completion programme in view of the submission (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16838/02]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey):

The school completion programme is a new and significantly expanded programme to deal with early school leaving incorporating the learning, experience and best practice derived from previous early school leaving initiatives and will assimilate the existing eight to 15 early school leaver initiative, ESLI, and Stay-in-School Retention initiative at second level, SSRI.

The objective of the school completion programme is to provide a range of interventions in areas of disadvantage that support the retention of young people in education. It is based on an integrated approach involving primary and post primary schools, parents, communities and relevant statutory and voluntary agencies.

Sites for the participation were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using the Departments post – primary pupils database. This analysis also identified their main feeder primary schools. Having regard to the amount of funding available to this programme, 65 new project sites, in addition to the 17 existing ESLI projects have been selected to participate in the school completion programme. The 53 SSRI schools which were not selected to participate in this project strand, will continue to be funded under an SSRI strand of this programme over the next three years.

The school to which the Deputy refers was not among the schools identified for selection and invited to participate in the School Completion Programme on this occasion.