The Minister for Education, Micheal Martin, has had a busy week; yesterday's launch of a White Paper on Early Childhood Education followed a critically important initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. Both are welcome and overdue. Funding of some £74 million is available for the development of the White Paper's proposals, which will see a more active State involvement in early childhood education, primarily through the development of a Quality in Education mark. That said, the provision and standard of early childhood education in this State will still be some distance behind what other EU citizens take for granted.
In relation to educational disadvantage a total of £194 million is to be spent on initiatives which span early childhood, primary and second level, as well as further and higher education. It represents a move away from the present piecemeal approach. The lack of a coherent vision on tackling educational disadvantage has meant that the economic boom has reached some classrooms of the State in the form of computing equipment and Internet access while other schools still have basic sanitary problems. One indictment of the current system was captured by an Irish Times photographer in last Saturday's edition. A queue of boys with special needs lined up to use the single boy's toilet in St Mary's Special School in Navan, Co Meath. There is no running water in parts of the school and oil heaters had to be brought in to keep the pupils warm. Anything that will alleviate such hardship is welcome. At first glance, £194 million seems a generous sum but there is a great deal to be done. In 1997 the OECD published the results of its International Adult Literacy Survey (1995) which showed that one quarter of our adult population had limited literacy skills. Some £20 million has been set aside under the "New Deal" to deal with numeracy and literacy problems at the early education stage, while over £27.5 million has been allocated to a Back to Education initiative. This is further complemented by more than £14 million additional funding for adult literacy services and £3 million for further education guidance.
At present, it is estimated that fewer than two per cent of third-level students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, while 16 per cent of the population generally belong to lower socio-economic groups. While the "New Deal" recognises the roots of the problem are in earlier education, it allocates £30 million specifically to improve third-level access for such students. To date, investment in higher education, and, in particular, the abolition of tuition fees, has largely represented a subsidy for the well-off. Some £25 million is to spent on disadvantaged primary schools, with a further £4.5 million to be provided to develop a primary school database to track dropout rates. This is a much-needed measure. At second-level, £28.4 million will be used to help retain students in schools.
The "New Deal" funding will be be provided over three years through both the National Development Plan and the annual estimates. There is a strong and welcome emphasis on targeting, flexibility, planning and accountability. Each initiative is be the subject of an annual report on activity and achievements and, once every three years, each initiative will be subject to independent international review. All reviews and studies are to be published within one month of being received by the Department of Education and Science.