Government ‘failing children’ on education

THE Government received a school report card yesterday, warning it “must do better” to help educate children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

One-in-three such children cannot effectively read or write, while around 1,000 don’t progress from primary to secondary school each year, children’s charity Barnardos revealed.

Children delivered a giant report card to the Government this morning, which marked its performance in six key educational areas, with the overall comment, “must do better” as Barnardos launched its Make the Grade campaign.

Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said 100,000 children in Ireland today find themselves doubly challenged by economic disadvantage and an education system that seems to be unable to meet their needs.

“We’re calling on the Government to do better to make the grade when it comes to children’s education,” he said.

“The Taoiseach has said that the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising is an opportunity to have a national conversation on what it means to be Irish. One of the things it means to be Irish is the right to an education.

“Unfortunately 90 years after the men of 1916 signed their names to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, which called for equal rights and equal opportunities and vowed to cherish all the children of the nation equally, there are school age children in Ireland struggling to write their own names.”

Barnardos director of advocacy Norah Gibbons said the education system is failing children who are already facing the challenge of living in poverty.

“Around 1,000 children under the age of 13 do not make it from primary school to secondary school every year and we have no idea where they go because they are not being tracked,” she said.

Barnardos is asking the public to support the Make the Grade Campaign bysending the School Report Card to Government.

They can obtain report cards by:

* Clicking on the website www.barnardos.ie and sending it via e-mail

* Calling [phone] and a pre-postage paid card will be sent out for themto add their comments

* E-mailing [e-mail] and marking the email ‘Report Card’request

* Or calling into a Barnardos shop in Clondalkin; Liffey Street; Rathmines; Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin; Wexford; Carlow or Cork.