Vol. 561 No. 4
308 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science the reason some schools that were included in the school retention initiative were not subsequently approved for the school completion programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4749/03]
In June 1999, the stay in school retention initiative at second level was launched in 58 schools. This initiative was extended by a further 59 schools in June 2000. The selection of schools was based on an objective analysis of their retention rates. Accordingly schools with the most significant difficulties were invited to participate in the initiative. This allowed resources to be targeted at schools through which they would reach the greatest number of young people at risk.
In 2002, my Department introduced the school completion programme or SCP, which 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 eight to 15 early school leaver initiative, ESLI, and stay-in-school retention initiative at second level or 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 participation in the programme were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using the Department's post-primary pupils database. Based on this analysis and having regard to the funding available, 82 project sites were selected. The projects selected to participate in the school completion programme comprised 65 new projects, which included 64 SSRI schools in addition to the 17 existing ESLI projects. The remaining 53 SSRI schools, which were not selected to participate in this project strand, will continue to be funded under the SSRI strand of this programme up to 31 August 2005.
