Major expansion of Deis school programme announced

Education Minister Norma Foley: '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.'

A €32m expansion of the Deis schools programme will see 60,000 more students benefit from targeted supports to address educational disadvantage, including students from 11 Cork schools newly added to the programme.

Education Minister Norma Foley announced on Wednesday a major expansion of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (Deis) programme for the first time since 2017, extending to 310 schools across the country for the first time, and providing increased supports to 37 existing Deis schools.

Currently, 884 schools and more than 180,000 students benefit from the Deis programme, representing about 20% of the overall school population. From September 2022, this will increase to 1,194 schools and more than 240,000 students.

“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,” Ms Foley said.

Schools have been identified for inclusion in the programme through a newly refined Deis identification model.

Using information from the 2021/22 Department of Education enrolment databases and 2016 census, identification of Deis schools has been extended to consider students from areas designated as "borderline disadvantaged", as well as "disadvantaged".

It also now includes components to reflect the levels of educational disadvantage experienced by students who have self-identified as Traveller or Roma, students in direct provision centres and students who are experiencing homelessness.

“The refined Deis identification model builds on the objectivity and fairness of the 2017 version, but now captures a greater breadth of disadvantage and accounts for severity of disadvantage through the application of a weighted process,” said Ms Foley.

Using this approach, we can extend the additional targeted supports of the Deis programme to those schools serving high concentrations of students at risk of educational disadvantage and be confident that the largest investment to date in the Deis programme is being provided to those schools most in need.”

The Department of Education has said it would work to support schools that are set to benefit from the programme to make the transition. Information sessions will be held for schools in the coming weeks on the Deis programme, and what supports will be available.

“[The] announcement demonstrates our commitment to inclusive education and supporting students facing disadvantage,” said minister of state for special education and inclusion Josepha Madigan.

“Our education system rightly places a strong emphasis on equal opportunity for everyone, no matter their background, and this is something I very strongly support. 

"I want to commend all those who have worked on finalising the new model as well as those who continue to work every day to support and empower young people through education,” she said.