A serious, concerted assault on educational disadvantage is needed urgently, a new INTO document on education recommends.
Introduced in Limerick yesterday by the teacher union's general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, it says that a special fund, equivalent to 10 per cent of the annual primary education budget, should go to disadvantage programmes.
"In the context of the current level of national wealth, this is a realistic, reasonable and essential level of support," the report, A Fair Start - An INTO Plan Towards Ending Educational Disadvantage, says.
It argues that the Department of Education's approach to the problem "appears somewhat ambiguous", with intensive support schemes being limited to a small number of schools identified in early designations and omitting area schools which experienced the same level of disadvantage.
Universal measures such as the provision of a remedial teacher and the Substance Abuse Programme might not meet the specific needs of disadvantaged schools.
The Minister's policy document, The New Deal, failed to make a commitment to extend the "early start" and "breaking the cycle" programmes.
The report says the establishment of a disadvantage committee, as set out in the 1998 Education Act, could have the potential "to become a key agent of change and an advocate for deprived children" if it revised the existing criteria for identifying disadvantaged schools.
"In the context of a review of the criteria, an intensified programme of assistance should be focused on all schools identified as disadvantaged," the report says.
Intensive supports should include enhanced remedial teaching including maths remedial teaching, a project aimed at preventing early school-leaving and provision for homework support and holiday-time programmes.
On pupil-teacher ratios, it says there should be a maximum class size of 24 for disadvantaged schools, to be reduced to 15 within three years.
"Resolving the issue of educational disadvantage is at the heart of creating a just and fair society," the report concludes.