Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 September 2020
504. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Education if she is satisfied that many schools in disadvantaged inner city areas do not get the sort of supports needed to even up educational opportunity; her plans to assess the scale of the gap in educational opportunity; and if proposals are being developed to close the gap. [21359/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe DEIS Programme is the Government’s main policy instrument to tackle educational disadvantage. In the 2020/21 academic year the DEIS Programme is available in 887 schools serving approximately 186,000 students. My Department will invest in the region of €125 million this year on the programme. Additional funding is provided from Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection for the School Meals Programme and from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs for the School Completion Programme. My Department’s investment in 2020 includes provision of:
- 419 Home School Community Liaison Coordinators serving 532 schools, catering for approximately 160,000 pupils.
- Additional posts for DEIS Urban Band 1 primary schools to allow for a reduced pupil teacher ratio.
- Curriculum supports
- Priority access to continuing professional development
- School Excellence Fund - DEIS
- DEIS grants and enhanced book grants.
A full list of supports under DEIS is available at:
https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/DEIS-Supporting-Information/Supports-to-DEIS-Schools.html
A key goal under DEIS Plan 2017 is the development of a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to determine which interventions are having the greatest impact in terms of delivering better outcomes for learners, the ultimate aim being to close the gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools. A DEIS Monitoring and Evaluation Group is established in my Department and work is ongoing in this regard.
There has been an extensive evaluation of the DEIS programme to date by both the Educational Research Centre (ERC) and the DES Inspectorate and the findings are contained in a series of published reports.
The findings from research carried out by the Inspectorate shows that the majority of schools are engaging in effective planning for improvement and indicate that where schools have taken a whole-school, evidence-based approach to improving literacy, especially at primary level, improvements in pupil attainment levels are observed.
Longitudinal research carried out by the ERC in DEIS urban primary schools in 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 show consistent improvement in both literacy and numeracy levels. ERC research of DEIS implementation at Post-primary level also show encouraging trends with a significant upward trend from 2009 onwards in attainment levels in both English and Mathematics at Junior Cert level and a narrowing of the gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools both in terms of performance at Junior Certificate level and retention rates. It also shows a rise in the percentage of students in DEIS schools taking English and Mathematics at higher level. Performance at Junior Certificate level between DEIS and non-DEIS schools has narrowed and there has been a rise in the % of students in DEIS schools taking English and Mathematics at a higher level e.g. in 2007 10% of students in DEIS schools took foundation level English, this fell to 4% in 2016. The corresponding figure for Maths was 24%, which has decreased to 13%.
The 2018 OECD PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results published last December shows that Ireland’s 15 year-olds are among the best in reading literacy and are performing significantly higher than the OECD average in mathematics and science.
Schools participating in DEIS have seen retention to Leaving Certificate improve since the introduction of DEIS from 80.1% for the 2006 entry cohort to 84.7% for the 2012 entry cohort. The gap in retention rates between DEIS and non-DEIS schools has narrowed from a gap of 16.8% for the 2001 entry cohort to approx. 8.5% for the 2012 cohort.
The School Excellence Fund-DEIS (SEF-DEIS enabled schools to apply for funding to implement innovative programmes which are context-specific and aimed at improving learning outcomes. Access to the SEF-DEIS is designed to ensure that some of the barriers frequently cited by school personnel as being impediments to improvements can be removed. The SEF-DEIS is designed to ensure that innovative approaches and proposals to tackle educational disadvantage will be supported and rewarded. A total of €1.8 million is provided.
As part of the Government's focus on addressing social and economic regeneration in Dublin’s North East Inner City there are a range of supports and innovative pilot projects for schools in this area to improve educational outcomes. In addition, two clusters in the Dublin North East Inner City area are participating in the SEF- DEIS initiative.
