Fianna Fail Education spokesperson Senator Fiona O’Loughlin welcomes Minister for Education Norma Foley TDs announcement of a major expansion of the DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme that will see the programme extended to an additional 7 schools in Kildare.
At a national level there are currently 884 schools and over 180,000 students benefit from the DEIS programme. As a result of this announcement from September 2022, this will increase to 1,194 schools and over 240,000 students.
Senator O’Loughlin said, “I am pleased to see the Minister for Education Norma Foley TD announcing the expansion of the DEIS programme. This is something I have been advocating strongly for at a national level.”
“I am and have always been a powerful advocate for inclusive education. Access to education must be universal, and the education we provide must meet the needs of each student.”
“The DEIS programme focuses on targeting additional resources at those schools with the highest concentrations of students who are at risk of educational disadvantage.
Fiona concluded by saying “Widening the band for DEIS is something I have been calling for within the Fianna Fail parliamentary party and I am glad that the DEIS identification model will now captures a greater breadth of disadvantage and accounts for severity of disadvantage through the application of a weighted process.”
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