Primary schools included in €32m DEIS expansion

PRIMARY schools in South Dublin County have been included in a major €32million expansion of the DEIS programme, which is set to bring the initiative to an additional 310 schools.

This expansion to the DEIS programme, which stands for Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, will see schools in Tallaght and Lucan gain access to targeted supports to address educational disadvantage.

St Mark’s Junior National School, St Mark’s Senior National School and Solas Chriost National School are the Tallaght schools which were identified for inclusion in the programme.

Over in Lucan, Devine Mercy Junior National School and Devine Mercy Senior National School will also be among the beneficiaries come September 2022 – when the new school term starts.

Schools are identified through the refined DEIS identification model, which is an objective, statistics-based system.

Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and according to the Department, “the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools”.

Minister for Education, Norma Foley, welcomed the announcement which will see the number of students benefitting from the programme grow by 60,000 to 240,000 pupils.

“I am delighted to announce today the largest-ever single investment in the DEIS programme and the addition of 310 new schools,” Minister Foley said.

“The DEIS programme is an internationally recognised, proven programme that provides targeted resources to schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage to support their students to have an equal opportunity to achieve their potential in education.

“This investment will provide for in the region of 160 additional primary teaching posts, approximately 100 additional home school community liaison posts, additional guidance and leadership posts as well as DEIS grants and enhanced book grant funding.”

The Department of Education is planning to work with schools to help support them in the transition to the DEIS programme, starting with information sessions in the coming weeks.

On top of this, material is being developed to help inform parents and students of the benefits of being included in the programme.