Member's statement: RAISE Programme
Member's statement by Mr Pat Sheehan on .
- MLA
- Mr Pat Sheehan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 15 October 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- RAISE Programme
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4592441
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I want to outline my concerns about the Department of Education's RAISE programme. When Minister Givan announced that £20 million was coming from the Shared Island unit in the South to help tackle the issue of educational underachievement here, I welcomed that as a really positive development. However, RAISE, as the programme has been named, fails to hit the mark. For some reason, the Minister and his officials have constructed a bizarre and complicated formula for determining the eligibility of schools to access funding under the programme. Why is it bizarre? While the funding was designed to support children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds — the children who are most likely to underachieve in education — the Minister and his officials have designed a scheme in which two thirds of grammar schools, many from the leafy suburbs, are eligible for funding, yet there are schools in some of the most deprived areas in the North that will not receive funding. For example, Bunscoil an tSléibhe Duibh in Ballymurphy cannot access funding, nor can Gaelscoil na Móna in Turf Lodge or St John the Baptist Primary School in Andersonstown. It is those schools and the young people who attend them that require this intervention. Traditionally, free school meals entitlement would have been used as the key indicator when making an intervention such as this, but, on this occasion, Minister Givan has decided to move away from that. In a system with such limited finances, we must ensure that we get bang for our buck. To do that, we need to target our resources where they are most needed. We must invest based on objective need and, in this instance, that is simply not happening. Recently, I sent questions to the Minister to outline my concerns — to say that I was not satisfied with the answers that I received would be an understatement. I take this opportunity to urge the Minister to go back to the drawing board, scrap his bizarre eligibility formula and bring forward a proper programme that delivers based on objective need.
345 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not qualifying”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.12 (qualifying needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not qualifying).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.93).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.99).
- Subject area: Education structures, integration and community division.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-qualifying threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.06 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.07 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.06 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.12 | At or below not-qualifying threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.99 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.01 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Education structures, integration and community division | 0.79 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.09 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.09 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.02 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.