Trevor Sargent
Ceist:76 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Education and Science if she will report on the implementation of the DEIS programme nationwide. [13451/06]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 5 April 2006
Ceisteanna (77)
Freagraí scríofa
DEIS, delivering equality of opportunity in schools, the new action plan for educational inclusion, which I launched last May, provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated school support programme, SSP. The school support programme will bring together, and build upon, a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage. The new action plan is being introduced on a phased basis, starting during the current school year. It will involve an additional annual investment of €40 million on full implementation. In addition, supports will continue to be provided for schools where the level of disadvantage is more dispersed.
The process of identifying primary and second level schools for participation in the new school support programme under DEIS has now been completed. This process was managed by the Educational Research Centre, ERC, on behalf of my Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the inspectorate.
As a result of the identification process, 640 primary schools, comprising 320 urban-town and 320 rural schools, and 200 second level schools have been invited to participate in the new school support programme.
The new action plan represents a shift in emphasis away from individual initiatives, each addressing a particular aspect of the problem, with the new plan adopting a multi-faceted and more integrated approach. This is the first time that an integrated educational inclusion strategy has been developed for three to 18 year olds in this country.
The key principle of early intervention underpins both the early childhood education measure and many of the literacy and numeracy measures being adopted under the new action plan. The plan will place a renewed emphasis on the involvement of parents and families in children's education in schools.
Also central to the success of the action plan will be an increased emphasis on planning at school and school cluster level, target-setting and measurement of progress and outcomes to ensure that the increased investment is matched by an improvement in educational outcomes for the children and young people concerned.
The plan addresses all of the following key issues and needs: improving identification of disadvantage; increasing early childhood education provision in the most disadvantaged communities; improving supports for pupils with low attainment levels in literacy and numeracy; strengthening procedures for measuring the outcomes achieved from educational inclusion measures; enhancing integration and partnership working, both within the education sector itself and cross-sectorally; enhancing professional development supports for principals and school staff; and furthering research and evaluation.
The first phase of implementation of the action plan will include the following measures for schools participating in the new school support programme: an additional €2.5 million will be made available in financial support; the 180 urban-town primary schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage will be targeted to benefit from maximum class sizes of 20:1 in junior classes and 24:1 in senior classes and the allocation of administrative principals on lower enrolment and staffing figures than apply in primary schools generally; the home school community liaison, HSCL, and school completion programme services will be extended to urban-town primary and second level schools in the SSP not in receipt of these services; the Reading Recovery programme and the First Steps pilot project will be further extended; rural primary schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage will benefit from access to a teacher-co-ordinator serving a cluster of schools and the rural teacher-co-ordinator service will be integrated under the remit of a strengthened national home school community liaison team; additional funding will be made available to support the development and implementation of whole-school literacy and numeracy strategies under the junior certificate school programme, JCSP; additional whole-time equivalent posts will be provided for guidance counselling, targeted at supporting junior cycle students, in second level schools in the SSP; and the JCSP demonstration library project will be extended to a further ten schools.
Schools which have not qualified for the school support programme and which are receiving additional resources, both human and financial, under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing concentrated disadvantage will retain these supports for 2006-07. The efficacy of these supports will be kept under review.
The DEIS action plan states that, as well as the provision being made under the SSP for schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage, financial support will also continue to be provided for other primary schools where the level of disadvantage is more dispersed. This support will be based on the results of the new identification process and the arrangements which will apply in this regard will be notified to schools early in the autumn.
A review process has also been put in place for primary and second level schools that did not qualify for participation in the school support programme and that regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The closing date for receipt of review applications was Friday, 31 March 2006.