Disadvantaged children cannot be focused on in isolation from their family, peers and community, the TUI president, Mr Derek Dunne, told the Minister for Education at yesterday's annual congress.
Parallel programmes must be established for parents, particularly mothers, and there must be a "societal" response to the issue, Mr Dunne said.
Addressing the Minister, Mr Dunne said that schools could not address this problem in a vacuum.
Resources must be allocated, there must be a preferential staffing ratio in such schools, teachers need to be adequately trained and supported, and given reduced timetables, he said.
Mr Dempsey's predecessor, Dr Michael Woods, had promised TUI congress two years ago that some 100 disadvantaged schools would get additional teaching posts, Mr Dunne reminded the Minister.
"These posts are not be confused with resource teaching/special needs posts that have become necessary because of the policy of inclusion in respect of children with special education needs, or with the provision of special needs assistants," he said.
Given the Minister's stated aim of eliminating educational disadvantage, this was one commitment he "must honour".
The Minister's decision to ask the inspectorate to ensure that the standardised school year was being adhered to last Christmas was "wrong", the TUI president also said.
"You must understand the depth of feeling on this in staff rooms," he told Minister Dempsey.
No other section of the public service had delivered as much as teachers and lecturers under the Sustaining Progress deal, he emphasised.
Responding, the Minister said that he was "not going to go back over" what had happened at Christmas.
