The Government is to spend £194 million over the next three years on a range of measures to tackle educational disadvantage.
The Minister for Education, Mr Martin, said the spending was necessary because many previous government schemes designed to eliminate disadvantage had failed because they were "piecemeal" and not targeted correctly.
The new package is entitled "The New Deal - a Plan for Educational Opportunity". Mr Martin said it was "a move away from business as usual" in the education sector. He claimed it was "the largest concentrated effort to tackle education disadvantage in our history". The package will be funded from the National Development Plan and the annual estimates, with the largest allocation, £30 million, going to improve access to third level. The plan was welcomed yesterday by the Union of Students in Ireland and the Teachers' Union of Ireland, which called it "timely and most welcome". An educational disadvantage committee will oversee the implementation of the plan. Mr Martin said each initiative would be the subject of an annual report, concentrating on whether objectives had been met.
Some £20 million is being allocated to early education. This includes a plan to give parents with poor education suitable material so they can help their children improve their literacy.
One of the most radical changes comes in the primary area, where £25 million is being allocated. Mr Martin plans to introduce a scheme to assist disadvantaged schools. This will be in addition to the current disadvantaged schools scheme, which, he said, "hasn't amounted to a hill of beans".
He said the current scheme "has been shown not to be an effective mechanism for assisting those most in need" because it tended to target disadvantaged schools rather than disadvantaged pupils. It often meant a school simply acquired one extra teacher and this was too limited an intervention.
The new scheme will come into operation after a comprehensive survey of primary schools to assess the number of disadvantaged pupils. "Priority will be given to the reduction of class sizes for infant classes," said Mr Martin.
Some £4.5 million will be spent on a primary pupil database which will provide information to the Department and other agencies, including details of pupils dropping out. At secondary level Mr Martin is setting aside £28.4 million to help schools retain as many pupils as possible. Schools will have to agree a "retention plan" with the Department. The plans will include the systematic tracking of absences from school, additional teaching hours for pupils at risk of leaving the system, and increased community outreach measures. Some £4 million will be set aside for career guidance in second-level schools and £3 million for guidance aimed at adults.
Special needs education will receive £4.25 million and a new education welfare board dealing with truancy will get the same amount. Some £27.5 million is earmarked for further education. Included in this will be childcare services for Vocational Training Opportunity Scheme (VTOS) participants and those involved in Traveller Centre programmes. The New Deal says this is with "a view to removing obstacles to the participation of trainees in these programmes". About £14 million will be devoted to adult literacy programmes.
The biggest allocation at third level centres on improving access for disadvantaged groups. Under the £30 million being provided, an access officer will be assigned to every college. Mature students will receive higher grants under changes to the eligibility rules, and college-based outreach schemes will be expanded. Some £6 million is being put into a national qualifications framework aimed at enhancing mobility within third level. The remaining £23 million is devoted to capital developments in schools and colleges.