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Breaking stories
Early school leavers cost €4bn
By Stephen Rogers
THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland has claimed that for every group of students that starts secondary school each year, the number who do not complete the Leaving Certificate will end up costing the State €4bn over a 40-year working life, or €100m per year.
The union’s research found:* Student drop-out is running at about 20% nationally. (considerably higher in urban areas). That translates to 10,000 students who start second-level any year not completing the Leaving Certificate.
* Conservative estimates show 5,000 of each of these cohorts of young people will end up dependent on the State.
* The cost per year to the Exchequer of an unemployed person in terms of social welfare payments and loss of taxation income is €20,000. Over a 40-year working period that amounts to €800,000. When that figure is multiplied by the number of each group of students dependent on the State (5,000) the cost per group is €4bn.
The union also warned the numbers of students leaving school early will increase due to a number of ‘anti-disadvantaged’ education cuts.
It said its figures show that investment in education pays dividends in future years in terms of the reduction in social welfare and health spending.
TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said: “As Government do not seem moved by the human cost of education cutbacks, we have costed student drop-out to the State in financial terms and the results are quite shocking.
“It makes it crystal clear that education cutbacks, particularly those that affect the most disadvantaged in society, will have severe economic and social consequences for the population.”
The union proposes the restoration of funding to programmes that prevent drop-out by providing alternative learning methodologies, such as the Junior Certificate Schools Programme and the Leaving Certificate Applied and Leaving Certificate Vocational.