Dempsey urged to review share of funds to tackle disadvantage

THE money spent on keeping young people from disadvantaged areas in school needs to be better divided to give them a chance of getting to third level, an education expert said last night.

Professor Áine Hyland, chairwoman of the Government’s Educational Disadvantage Committee, said the

€42 million secured by Education Minister Noel Dempsey for third-level grants was a welcome boost.

She said it could particularly address the issue of keeping students in college by reducing the need for them to do part-time work to pay their way.

But, she said, efforts must be made at primary and secondary level to better co-ordinate existing initiatives to alleviate educational disadvantage.

This was one of the key recommendations of the committee’s first report, presented to Mr Dempsey in March.

The Department of Education invests over €70m a year on dozens of projects to tackle disadvantage, giving children extra help early on in school and discouraging them from leaving early.

The success of these programmes could see far more students from poorer backgrounds going to college over the next decade.

“We need to get better value for what is being spent because some schools are getting support from up to eight different initiatives but the money has to be spent separately.

“We must identify the programmes that might be phased out or pooled together to work more closely with each other,” said Prof Hyland.

This has been identified by Mr Dempsey on numerous occasions as an area where resources are being wasted and better co-ordination will be the focus of the committee’s next phase.

This sentiment was echoed by Dr Peadar Cremin, president of Mary Immaculate College of Education in Limerick, who said questions have to be asked about the level of support for primary and secondary level.

“The debate about whether students pay third-level fees or not is entirely academic for the significant number of students who have dropped out long before ever getting to the gates of any third-level institution,” he said.

Up to 1,000 students do not transfer from primary to secondary level each year while 17,500 students leave without a Leaving Certificate.

The National Congress of Catholic Secondary Schools Parent Associations welcomed Mr Dempsey’s attempts to create equal access to education.