Teen unemployment - Education the key to solving crisis

Considerably more absorbing than the Central Statistics Office revelation that the number of people working in the economy had passed the two million mark for the first time, was the shocking figure for teenage unemployment.

While the CSO news, relating to the second quarter of this year, is to be very much welcomed, there can be no comfort whatsoever in the fact that unemployment among Irish teenagers more than doubled in the three years to 2004.

That figure was produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and referred to young people between 15 and 19 years. What is more, it showed that 8.5% of them were neither in education nor had jobs.

On the face of it this might be dismissed because it applies to at least two years ago, but for the deeply worrying confirmation by the CSO that the situation had become more aggravated since then.

As recently as this week, in its latest unemployment figures, it found that the rate for the same age group — 15 to 19 years — had grown to 9.2% for March to May of this year. This was an increase from 8.6% in its own figures for 2004.

Yet, during the years before then, from 1996 to 2002, the number of 15-year-olds who had left school had almost doubled, according to the census of 2002.

The OECD report, which puts the country among the bottom three in a league table of 30 OECD member countries, avers that Ireland spent only 4.4% of GDP on education in 2003.

Although it recognised that there was significant growth in strong performance on overall education spending, it was still well below average.

Both the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) were critical of aspects of the Irish education system.

The TUI maintained that Ireland was second from the bottom of the league for per-student spending at second level and, as such, it showed that education continued to be neglected.

In much the same frame of mind, the INTO was critical because, with an average of 23.9 pupils per class, Ireland emerged as having the EU’s second-highest primary class sizes, and the sixth highest in OECD countries.

It is obvious from the comments of the teacher unions and the OECD that education is suffering, despite the fact that Education Minister Mary Hanafin rejected criticism of the level of money the Government is spending on it.

She does, however, find this level of unemployment among the age group, 15 to 19 years, to be worrying, although she points out that it is Government policy to increase education opportunities for young people who are not suited to second chance or traditional schooling, such as Youthreach or apprenticeships.

Considered a committed minister among the present administration, she did manage to achieve extra funding for her department, although as a percentage of national income, Government spending on education leaves something to be desired.

Because Ms Hanafin insists that the Government is making major strides in improving the education system, possibly it is not targeting the proper areas, certainly outside of third-level education.

There is certainly something disconcerting in considering that while employment is generally very buoyant, so many young people appear to have fallen through the net.