The education minister has been urged to address concerns about an initiative to “reduce educational disadvantage”, which could potentially provide money to a £5,000 a year prep school.
Wallace High Preparatory and Friends School, both in Lisburn, are among 400 primary and post-primary schools listed for potential inclusion in the £20 million RAISE programme.
The latter is ranked as having one of the most affluent enrolments in the north.
Questions have been raised about the criteria used to select the schools for funding amid concerns schools in deprived communities with high numbers of poor pupils are being excluded.
Many grammar schools with lower rates of poorer pupils appear to have been deemed eligible for support.
One school principal told The Irish News it was “beyond puzzling”, while politicians called on Paul Givan to “go back to the drawing board, scrap his bizarre eligibility formula”.
The Department of Education secured funding this year for a two-year period from the Republic’s Shared Island Investment Programme.
Mr Givan said at the time the initiative was to “raise achievement to reduce educational disadvantage” and would help to “remove the barriers that prevent many of our children and young people from engaging in learning”.
However, questions have been now asked about the criteria.
There are also concerns about the apparent elimination of a long-established means of identifying school communities most at risk of underachievement. Free school meals entitlement (FSME) has long been used a key proxy measure of socio-economic deprivation
Some schools with high FSME have not been included on the list for support. These include West Winds PS in Newtownards, which has 71% FSME and Holy Cross College in Strabane, 35.3%.
Yet Whiteabbey PS, which has just 4% FSME, is eligible for RAISE funding as are several grammars with 9% or less including Bangor Grammar, Belfast High, Grosvenor Grammar, Victoria College, Ballymena Academy, St Louis’ Grammar and Aquinas.
Wallace High Preparatory in Lisburn is also among those listed as eligible - a school charging fees of just under £5,000 per year.
Chris Donnelly, principal of St John The Baptist PS in west Belfast, said: “There are serious concerns about the manner in which the eligibility criteria was drafted and applied for this programme which the minister has repeatedly claimed is about raising achievement and reducing educational disadvantage.
“Every educational study will confirm the close relationship between academic underachievement and socio-economic deprivation.
“The Department of Education’s own statistics illustrate how the academic performance of pupils entitled to free school meals continues to lag far behind those of more affluent pupils, and this is further reflected in the performance of non-grammar schools in relation to their grammar counterparts, with non-grammars having considerably greater numbers of poorer pupils amongst their enrolments.
“Similarly, primary schools with above average numbers of pupils entitled to free school meals face a greater range of obstacles and challenges associated with socio-economic deprivation and underachievement.
“Therefore, it is beyond puzzling to find out that schools in deprived communities, with high numbers of poor pupils, have been excluded from this programme whilst more than two-thirds of grammar schools, as well as other schools with very low rates of poor pupils amongst their enrolment have been deemed eligible, including a fee-paying preparatory school in the minister’s own constituency.”
Sinn Féin education spokesperson Pat Sheehan said the RAISE programme “fails to hit the mark”.
“For some reason, the education minister and his officials have constructed a bizarre and complicated formula for determining which schools will be eligible to participate in the programme and which schools won’t,” he said.
“Why is it bizarre? Because while this scheme was intended to support the children who are most likely to underachieve in education, the minister and his officials have designed a scheme in which two thirds of grammar schools, including fee-paying schools, qualify for funding, but schools like Bunscoil an tsléibhe Dhuibh in Ballymurphy and Gaelscoil na Móna in Turf Lodge do not.
“Traditionally, free school meals entitlement would have been used as the key evidence when making an intervention such as this, but on this occasion, Minister Givan has decided to move away from that.
“I am calling on the minister to go back to the drawing board, scrap his bizarre eligibility formula and work with those of us who want to see a plan that really will address the issue of educational underachievement in the north.”
Nick Mathison, Alliance education spokesperson, said: “Whilst it’s incredibly welcome that we’re investing in tackling educational underachievement, it’s unclear just how the specific system tasked with identifying areas to target has been devised.
“If we are investing money in a targeted way, we must have confidence it’s going to the schools and children that need it most and I will be asking questions of officials when they come to brief the education committee on the programme.”
The Department of Education said no funding has yet been allocated under RAISE.
A spokesman said the intent was to support young people and communities in areas of deprivation and disadvantage – with a key design feature being that it is based on where children live, not where they go to school.
“A wide range of data was considered and seven indicators were chosen to identify the localities in which the programme will operate. These included GCSE attainment, pupil absence, crime and anti-social behaviour incidents.
“Following the identification of localities, the department identified the schools attended by children and young people living in those localities.“
The list of schools consists of all those with 10 or more pupils that live in the RAISE localities.
“The list therefore reflects the wide range of schools serving children and young people in those localities. The department is aware that some disadvantaged pupils that live in RAISE localities attend schools with a low proportion of pupils that are entitled to free school meals.
“The list is therefore indicative only and will be refined as the department continues to engage with the education sector and other stakeholders.
“Importantly, the fact that a school is listed is not a guarantee of funding; likewise the fact that a school is omitted from this list does not mean it cannot be involved in the programme.”
