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Early school leaving ‘requires action’

By Niall Murray Education Correspondent - Wednesday, May 26, 2010

ALL children should be tracked from pre-school through to college to monitor their progress and help find ways to cut dropout rates, an Oireachtas report has recommended.

The study on early school leaving by the Oireachtas education committee also calls for greater coordination between the raft of agencies that deal with young people at risk of not reaching Leaving Certificate. Most recent data shows that, while the dropout rate has fallen from one-in-five to one-in-six in a decade, boys and certain categories of pupils are more likely than others to fall between the cracks.

The report rapporteur, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames, Fine Gael, said the findings should go a long way to eliminating obstacles met by early school-leavers in the one-size-fits-all model on which the school system largely relies.

"Too often, these forgotten young people are unemployed, can’t read or write, get into trouble or into drugs, end up in prison and are social welfare statistics. Even when there was a boom, their life chances were extremely limited."

She said six key areas should be prioritised for immediate attention, including coordinated early childhood education and supports for parents of pupils at risk of early school leaving.

The committee wants a focus placed on engaging boys with education, tackling poor literacy and numeracy, and developing a new emotional or therapeutic service for second level schools given rises in mental health problems and suicide.

A review of the second level curriculum to make it more relevant to those at risk of early school leaving is also sought.

The report says a database should be set up covering pupils from pre-school onward. It should include information on whether they are members of target groups, such as boys, members of migrant or ethnic groups, their socioeconomic status, and whether they are Travellers or have special educational needs.

The absence of such a database makes it impossible to record how many children do not make it beyond primary school, estimated to be around 1,000 a year.

The fragmentation between the work of the Department of Education and other agencies was highlighted to researchers, who interviewed more than 40 early school-leavers.

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