The report, New Targeting Social Need, published last week, analysed data from the years 1994/95 to 1999/2000 regarding children's participation in pre-school provision and secondary school in the Province. It found an increase in the number of children from disadvantaged areas in pre-school provision during this time, although the number of travellers' children in pre-school provision remained low.
The report also noted that up until 1998/99, the first year of the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme, the number of children in funded pre-school provision who were entitled to free school meals or whose parents received either income support or the jobseeker's allowance was lower than the proportion of primary school pupils entitled to free school meals.
The report added, 'In 1999/2000 there was a gap again, but this time in the opposite direction. This indicates that the introduction of the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme equalised the participa-tion rate of children from disadvantaged and less-disadvantaged backgrounds in pre-school education, and indeed by 1999/2000 had made the participation rate of children from disadvantaged backgrounds exceed those of less-disadvantaged backgrounds.'
The report also found that only 18 per cent of travellers' children in 1998/99 were in pre-school education - well below the overall participation rate of 56 per cent of children.
Education minister Martin McGuinness welcomed the report, which he said 'reveals some quite encouraging trends'. He added, 'On the downside, there continues to be a large disparity between the achievement of pupils entitled to free school meals and pupils in general. Much needs to be done, but this report will provide us with baseline information against which we will be able to measure future progress.'
Early years organisation NIPPA gave the report a guarded welcome. Colum Conway, its director of field services and quality, said, 'While we generally welcome overall the increasing number of disadvantaged children in the pre-school sector, we are concerned about equality issues and that there are still a number of children in disadvantaged areas not receiving places.
'We also find the low number of travellers' children in pre-school provision disappointing and do not feel the Department of Education is taking a pro-active stance in dealing with their needs.'
The New Targeting Social Need policy applies across all Northern Ireland departments and has three elements - focusing on tackling the problems of unemployment and increasing employa-bility, tackling inequalities in health, housing and education, and promoting social inclusion.
