Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher has questioned the Department of Social Protection’s logic in omitting certain Donegal schools from the newly announced Schools Meals Programme.
The West Donegal TD said that some of those same schools were earlier omitted from the DEIS programme by the Minister for Education.
He said “It is very disturbing how this Government are approaching and attempting to tackle disadvantage in our Education system, while some schools have received their DEIS designation and now others obtain the Meals Programme – there is equally a considerable number of schools within our communities, which have failed to be designated for either programme by this Government.
“The complete failure initially by the Minister for Education to fairly designate DEIS schools throughout Donegal and most recently by the Minister for Social Protection to deal with the Schools Meals Programme is a shocking demonstration of how incompetent the Government’s strategy is in dealing with Educational Disadvantage in rural areas.”
He said that it is welcome news for the 18 schools which have received their invitation to join the Meals Programme.
“The meals initiative will of course make a huge contribution to those schools. But what of the dozen or more schools which have not received this invitation?. Since the DEIS designations in February we have witnessed a policy of exclusion rather than inclusion – certain schools continuously being omitted from inclusion programmes such as DEIS or the Meals Programme.
“Again, we have examples of the incredible situation whereby within similar areas or Parishes we have certain schools in the programme while others with similar or identical socio-economic indicators are left out. This haphazard approach by the Government in tackling Educational Disadvantage is creating a two tier approach to our schools and is causing educational segregation within our communities, and the schools management or authorities have very little or no direct input into either applying for or appealing the decisions as in both cases neither exist.”
He arrgued that these issues could all of been avoided if the Government would seek the advice or direct input from the schools rather than solely relying on desk top analysis or computer inputs of disadvantage.
“There is no substitute for raw data from those that work in the coal face of the sector, the Teachers, Principals, Parent Associations and School Managers,” he added.
He said the Government need urgently to reassess and re-evaluate their current policy direction in tackling complete educational disadvantage, the current piecemeal approach is only further creating new levels of disadvantage and isolation within our communities.
“There is no excuse for omitting any school from a Social Inclusion or Educational Disadvantage Programme – every effort must be made to guarantee that those programmes will provide a free, fair and equal access for all our children to the various educational opportunities which our system provides but again this Government has failed to deliver that for all our schools.”
And he added “The Government needs to urgently to re-open the DEIS programme in order to deal with the earlier omissions of schools right throughout Donegal and furthermore the Schools Meals Programme should be re-opened by the Minister for Social Protection to all schools for their application especially for those schools recently omitted. The application process should be open, fair, transparent and based on information provided by the schools rather than on an invitation basis from Departmental of Social Protection.”
