John Cregan
Ceist:362 Mr. Cregan asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will reconsider the decision to phase out the SSRI scheme which has proved a huge success to date to a school (details supplied) in County Kilkenny. [1169/03]
Written Answers. - Early School Leavers.
Phil Hogan
Ceist:375 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the retention of the SSRI programme at Colaiste Mhuire, Johnstown, County Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1191/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 362 and 375 together.
The school completion programme, SCP, which was introduced in 2002 directly targets those in danger of dropping out of the education system and builds on two earlier schemes, incorporating the elements of best practice established by the eight to 15 year old early school leaver initiative, ESLI, and the stay-in-school retention initiative at second level, SSRI, the pilot phases of which came to an end in August and July 2002 respectively.
The school completion programme is a key component of the Department's strategy to discriminate positively in favour of children and young people who are at risk of early school leaving.
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 participation were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using the Department's post-primary pupils database. This analysis also identified their main feeder primary schools. Some 82 school completion projects, including the 17 existing ESLI projects were selected to participate in the school completion programme.
However, in addition to the 82 school completion projects, my Department is continuing to support 53 second level schools, which were funded previously under the stay in school retention initiative but were not selected for the project strand of this programme on this occasion, which includes the school referred to by the Deputy. These 53 schools will be supported under the stay in school retention strand of SCP to 31 August 2005.
Having regard to the amount of funding available to this programme in future, any decision to include further project sites will be based on a selection process using the most current detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level from the Department of Education and Science post-primary pupils database.