Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 March 2022
270. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Education if a school (details supplied) should be considered urban rather than rural for DEIS status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15626/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraOn 9th March, 2022 I announced the expansion of the DEIS programme benefitting 347 schools. These schools were identified as having the highest levels of educational disadvantage. In the 2022/23 academic year there will be 1,194 schools in the DEIS Programme - 960 Primary and 234 Post Primary. This will also mean a €32million increase in my Department's expenditure on DEIS programme from 2023. This is the largest ever single investment in the programme and will extend DEIS status to schools serving the highest proportions of pupils at risk of educational disadvantage.
This announcement follows an extensive body of work by the DEIS technical group to develop the refined DEIS identification model to identify the concentrated levels of disadvantage of schools. Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model which uses information from the Department of Education enrolment databases and the Pobal HP Deprivation index.
The key data sources used in the DEIS identification process are the Department of Education (DE) Primary Online Database (POD) and Post-Primary Online (PPOD) Databases, and Central Statistics Office (CSO) data from the National Census of Population as represented in the Pobal HP Index for Small Areas, which is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area. The DEIS identification model also took into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and by students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools.
The categorisation of DEIS primary schools as 'urban' or 'rural' is undertaken using the CSO boundary data classification of ‘settlements’. 'Urban' refers to settlements with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural. This CSO classification also takes into account growth in population and the expansion of urban areas over time (urban sprawl), and is considered the most appropriate method of categorising schools as 'urban' or 'rural'.
It is important to note that, in the context of identification of schools for inclusion in the DEIS programme, the assessed level of concentrated disadvantage of a school's pupil cohort is independent of the school categorisation as 'urban' or 'rural'.
