Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 January 2019
229. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the DEIS scheme will be expanded to additional schools in County Donegal on foot of a recent report which found a significant gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4188/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has introduced an objective, statistics-based model for assessing which schools merit inclusion in the DEIS Programme, so that all stakeholders can have confidence that we are targeting extra resources at those schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage.
The key data sources used in the DEIS identification process are the DES Primary Online Database, POD, and Post-Primary Online, PPOD, Databases, and CSO data from the National Census of Population as represented in the Pobal Haase Pratschke Deprivation Index, HP Index. The HP Index combines three underlying dimensions of affluence/disadvantage, identified as Demographic Profile, Social Class Composition and Labour Market Situation, to achieve a balanced measure of relative affluence and deprivation, which evenly applies across the urban-rural continuum. Variables used in the compilation of the HP Index include those related to demographic growth, dependency ratios, single parent rates, education levels, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. This data is combined with pupil data, anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools. This data is applied uniformly to all schools in the country in a fair and objective way, to identify the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in each school.
The calculation of the level of disadvantage in each school is based on the socio-economic background of its pupil cohort using centrally held data as previously outlined and is not based on the location of the school but on the geographical CSO Small Areas where the pupil cohort resides.
A detailed document explaining the methodology used in the Identification process under DEIS plan 2017 is available on my Department’s website at:https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/DEIS-Identification-Process.pdf.
DEIS Plan 2017 states that the improved data on the socio-demographic of schools resulting from the new identification model will have an impact not only on the assessment of schools for inclusion in the programme but also on the scaling of resources to allow for more graduated levels of support. This is turn allows for the ultimate objective of allocating resources to best meet the identified need of individual schools.
In order to achieve this, the current identification model needs to be as accurate as possible, and this requires the use of Eircode to ensure correct inputting of addresses. Further analysis is also required to examine other variables known to be strong predictors of educational disadvantage in the context of resource allocation.
Therefore, in order to ensure the quality of the address data and conduct further analysis, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools until this work is complete.
