DEIS Exclusion
Five primary schools from Tipperary town, represented by some 100 school pupils, teachers, and their parents, travelled to Dublin city yesterday, to protest at their exclusion from the DEIS scheme (Delivering Equality of opportunity In Schools), latter which allocates additional resources to disadvantaged schools.
Each of the five primary schools protesting all believe they meet the necessary criteria for full inclusion in this scheme.
In February last an extra 79 schools were granted DEIS status, however Tipperary schools were not included in the final shake up. They together with some 90 other schools, have now formally queried this allocation process to the Department of Education.
The school principals state that while the Department of Education officials informed them that their particular establishments appear to meet DEIS criteria, they will not currently be included in the scheme. This is received by those protesting as a gross injustice being handed out to Tipperary town pupils.
During their protest the five schools delivered a letter of protest for the Minister for Education and Skills, Mr Richard Bruton, which fully outlined their trepidations.
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