A new report on school funding has criticised the way in which money meant specifically for educational disadvantage can be used for anything schools want.
The report of the technical working group on the funding of second-level schools, presented earlier this month to the Minister for Education, criticises the current system of helping disadvantaged schools in three areas: selection of schools and pupils for assistance, thresholds for funding, and how the funds are used.
Whether a school is designated as disadvantaged depends on its principal's assessment of the status of first-year pupils in terms of housing, parental and financial status, literacy and numeracy. Dropout rates are also taken into account.
The availability of extra funding may lead some principals to overestimate numbers of disadvantaged pupils. Conversely, others may underestimate the numbers because of the perceived "stigma" involved.
The report is critical of the present system of giving help to whole schools rather than to designated disadvantaged pupils. It suggests that this leads to inadequate funding in some areas, particularly for disadvantaged pupils in small towns and rural areas. It also supports the argument that, with limited resources available, those schools most in need should be targeted, rather than spreading resources too thinly.
The authors also criticise the lack of any continuing review of whether the needs of disadvantaged schools and pupils have grown or diminished, given that the system is based on one "snapshot" taken in 1994 "using selection criteria which are open to criticism".
The report expresses concern that schools which fall just short of disadvantaged status receive no extra support, whereas designated schools get both additional teaching and financial help. For a voluntary secondary school this can be worth nearly £20,000 a year.
It also notes that within the group of disadvantaged schools there will be different levels of disadvantage and need for assistance. Yet currently in such schools per capita funding is provided for every pupil, whether they are disadvantaged or not. The same level of funding is provided to all such schools regardless of their needs.
Funding is currently paid to disadvantaged voluntary secondary schools as a supplement to their normal capitation grants. "Although it is intended that the funding is used specifically for problems relating to educational disadvantage in a school, there is no follow-up or enforcement in this regard, and schools are free to redirect funding to whatever purpose they choose," the report says.
It expresses concern that, under this scheme, there is a danger that the limited amount of funding available might not always reach those most in need or address the problems for which it was allocated.