Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 April 2013
108. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he expects to be in a position to address such issues as early school-leaving or drop out from education in the short and medium term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17962/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to assure the Deputy that ongoing measures to address school attendance, participation and retention are part of the Government's overall strategy to deal with educational disadvantage.
DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) is part of a continuum of interventions delivered by my Department to address educational disadvantage including early school leaving from pre-school through second-level education. This includes Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) through the universal pre-school provision scheme; Second-Chance education and training and access measures to increase participation in further and higher education for the minority of our young people who, for various reasons, leave education early without the knowledge and skills they need to support them in later life. A further element of this continuum is the ongoing development of provision for pupils with special educational needs.
In 2009 the National Educational Welfare Board was given an extended remit which involved the integration of the Home School Community Liaison Service (HSCL) and the School Completion Programme (SCP) as well as the National Educational Welfare Service (EWS) under one common management team to provide for a single, strategic approach to attendance, participation and retention in school. The aim of this integration of services is to meet the needs of children and improve educational outcomes for those most at risk of early school leaving or of developing school attendance problems.
Following from the expansion of the remit of the Board, and its transfer to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in 2011, the NEWB has developed a new Integrated Model of Service Delivery called 'One Child, One Team, One Plan'. The Plan, which I understand is to be rolled out shortly, will integrate the overall Educational Welfare Service with the key DEIS supports of the Home School Community Liaison Service and School Completion Programme. This will lead to earlier response rates and assist in achieving better outcomes for children at risk of early school leaving.
The latest Report on Retention Rates in Post Primary Schools, published in 2012 and available on my Department's website, presents the retention rates of pupils who entered the first year of the junior cycle in the years from 2005 to 2006 and completed second level schooling no later than 2012. This report shows the following encouraging results: the percentage of students who sit the Leaving Cert overall has risen by more than 6% to 90.2% in 8 years; the average Leaving Certificate retention rate in DEIS schools increased by almost 7 percentage points from 73.2% to 80.1% for students who entered second level in 2004 to 2006 while the retention rate in non-DEIS schools increased from 87.4% to 92.7% for the same entry cohorts; the number of young men staying in secondary school has risen dramatically to 88.7% compared to 76.9% in the 2001 cohort.
