The Minister for Education, Mr Martin, has said he would "look favourably" on a funding application from an innovative new project to link and develop eight of Dublin's inner-city primary schools, Andy Pollak reports.
The latest phase of the Primary School Initiative of the Dublin Inner City Partnership was launched yesterday by Mr Martin. The eight schools have all been hit in the past 20 years by severe social and economic deprivation and falling pupil numbers, with the result that they now receive only 50-60 per cent of their running costs from the Department of Education.
The PSI aims to improve the schools' morale by bringing teachers together to exchange good practice in everything from urban gardening to psychotherapy; expanding the use of computers; bringing innovative arts, music and drama courses into their classrooms; and improving home-schoolcommunity co-operation.
It is headed by a seconded teacher, Mr Brian Tubbert, whose salary is paid not by the Department but by the Inner City Partnership.
The project is supported by The Irish Times, the Dublin Institute of Technology, the Ark Children's Centre, the Pigeon House Science Centre, the Royal College of Surgeons, Friends Provident Insurance Company, FAS and the INTO.