£30m For Disadvantaged Pupils

Education Minister John O'Dowd has moved to provide £30m to specifically target schools teaching children from disadvantaged backgrounds over the next two years.

The move is part of a pledge by the Minister to change the way schools are funded in order to benefit disadvantaged children.

Mr O’Dowd also announced an extension to the free school meals eligibility criteria that will see, by September 2014, an additional 15,000 children entitled to free school meals and support with uniform costs.

"Last year I commissioned a review of the Common Funding Scheme which determines how funds are allocated to schools," the Minister said.

"I commissioned an independent panel, led by Sir Bob Salisbury, to examine this area and to report back to me.

"A key area of focus for the independent panel was to examine how a revised funding formula could better support my determination to address educational underachievement and help break the link between social disadvantage and low educational outcomes. A system which, despite continued yearly improvement, still sees disadvantaged pupils only half as likely to achieve five GCSEs or equivalents at grades A*-C including English and maths as their more affluent counterparts presents an education, an economic, a political challenge that we cannot ignore."

The Minister also said schools should be using the money allocated to them to improve the outcomes for pupils at their schools.

He revealed that, last year, 86 primary schools were holding surpluses in excess of £100,000, with seven of these holding in excess of a quarter of a million.

Turning to small schools, the Minister said: "The review panel recommended that I remove all small schools factors from the current funding. However, it recognised that strategically important small schools would, in that scenario, have to be supported by funding outside the new formula in order to deliver effective education for their pupils.

"I believe that reform of how we fund our schools is needed if they are to be able to deliver the outcomes for young people that we need them to deliver," he said.

"I have set out how I think improvements can be made and now I want to test these ideas with schools and with others."

(IT/CD)