Impressive rhetoric, well-planned recommendations and worthy initiatives have failed to have a widespread impact on the problem of educational disadvantage, according to the INTO.
Speaking at the launch last night of a major policy document entitled "Tackle disadvantage now!", Mr John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, said an array of reports, studies and publications had defined the causes and effects of educational disadvantage.
But while many initiatives had had very positive effects, much remained to be done.
"Our efforts to date have failed for three reasons. Initiatives have neglected to tackle the root cause of poverty and, in particular, child poverty. They have failed because, in the main, they were introduced as stand-alone pilot projects in a limited number of schools.
"They have failed because some structures and practices in our educational system have not changed sufficiently.
"What is the response of this Government? Having taken a hiding in the polls, the best Fianna Fáil can come up with is to invite Father Seán Healy to its annual think-in.
"It will take action not optics to assure us that they are listening to the people . . . unfortunately we have a Government that trumpets our booming economy while ignoring our crumbling society."
According to the policy document, disadvantaged schools should be banded according to priority when it comes to the allocation of supports to tackle educational disadvantage.
Category one schools should have highly-concentrated levels of educational disadvantage. They should have staffing and local supports allocated to them according to a range of criteria.
These include a class size of 15:1 at junior level and 20:1 at senior level; early intervention programmes based on the "Early Start" programme; a three-year infant cycle; and the provision of appropriate special educational-needs resources.
Other bands of schools should be created on a reduced or sliding scale, the INTO believes, while a separate band should be used for supports for rural disadvantage.
The document follows recent revelations that more than 30 per cent of children in disadvantaged areas have severe literacy problems.
Earlier this week, The Irish Times also revealed that over one-quarter of secondary students from poorer areas miss school for at least one month in every academic year.
The INTO believes that much work remains to be done to ensure appropriate support structures are put in place for schools and pupils in areas of concentrated disadvantage.
Some of the measures it wished to see introduced included an educational disadvantage support service, the development of homework and breakfast clubs, the payment of an allowance to teachers in schools in areas of educational disadvantage, and the allocation of 15 per cent of the annual education budget specifically to tackle disadvantage.
"The key to resolving the issue is to commit once and for all to tackle disadvantage and deprivation wherever it is found," Mr Carr said. "It requires a commitment to a real distribution of resources."