What is DEIS?
Launched in 2005 by the Department of Education and Skills, DEIS (Delivering Equality of
Opportunity in Schools) is the most recent national programme aimed at addressing the
educational needs of children and young people where it is needed most. A very
significant element of DEIS is known as the School Support Programme (SSP) which is in
place in about 340 urban primary schools, 340 rural primary schools, and 200 post-primary
schools with the greatest need for extra support structures addressing many facets of school life (see www.education.ie ).
All primary and post-primary schools participating in DEIS receive a range of additional
resources including additional staffing, funding, access to literacy and numeracy programmes,
and assistance with activities such as school planning. As part of the SSP, interventions such
as the Home School Community Liaison Scheme and the School Completion Programme are
available to DEIS post-primary schools.
Schools in the DEIS programme are required to set out a three-year DEIS Action Plan for
Improvement. As part of this process, schools are asked to set specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic and time specific targets and to evaluate these annually by monitoring
the impact of actions undertaken in the key DEIS themes.