We might reasonably expect the Department of Education to make educated decisions. However, in publishing an indicative list of schools which may benefit from a £20 million scheme to reduce educational disadvantage, the department’s rationale is difficult to understand.
It says its Raise programme is aimed at giving every child here a fair start at school, regardless of their background. With about one in five children here leaving school without five GCSEs at Grades A* to C, the problem of educational underachievement certainly needs to be addressed.
Raise has its origins in the Fair Start report of 2021, which linked educational underachievement to economic deprivation. However, in publishing what it calls an indicative list of the schools which could benefit from the scheme, the department has come up with some surprising results.
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As this newspaper reported yesterday, among the schools on the list are Wallace High and Friends preparatory departments, both in Lisburn, which charge fees of just under £5,000 annually, as well as several grammar schools. The link between economic deprivation and a fee-paying preparatory school deserves an explanation.
The traditional measure of deprivation is the level of free school meals uptake in a particular school, but it does not appear to have been used in this case. The Minister of Education, Paul Givan, might like to explain why.
He may also wish to respond to the many criticisms of his department’s list, by explaining how he has defined educational underachievement and how he has identified where it exists.
Unless the minister explains the criteria he has used to identify schools on his list, there can be little public confidence in the Raise scheme
He may have difficulty in doing either, because the scheme is built on what it calls ‘A Whole Community Place-based Approach’. That obscure language is further muddled by describing it as “a codesign process”, with public engagement to give a voice to more people and organisations.
Woolly language and vague concepts have no place in education, so it would be helpful if the minister would give an indication of the type of people and organisations he has in mind. How does the minister think that such people and organisations, rather than a teacher, will be able to address the individual learning needs of a child?
Perhaps Mr Givan might also accept that education here should not only be based on a fair start, it should be built on a fair system. Segregating children through academic selection at the age of 11 is not only unfair, it also makes a significant contribution to educational underachievement.
Unless the minister explains the criteria he has used to identify schools on his list, there can be little public confidence in the Raise scheme. Until he does so, his Department of Education will risk being identified as a fine example of underachievement in education.
