Pay youngsters to stay in school, says expert

Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

Despite several initiatives in the last decade to encourage young people from poorer areas to finish second-level schooling, almost one-in-five young people still leave school without sitting the Leaving Certificate. Economics professor Colm Harmon of UCD said a solution could be to follow the example of a successful trial of Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) payable to students.

Under the scheme, a 10% improvement in retention rates was found after local education authorities paid up to E 60a week to students who might otherwise have gone working or turned to crime. “There is no reason why such a scheme should not work here,” Prof Harmon said.

Under the rules of the EMA, recipients are not allowed to do part-time work and must keep regular attendance and pass their exams. Prof Harmon said although there has been no measured outcome of school retention schemes, improvements are needed.

“It’s not about giving them an income, but giving an incentive to stay in school,” he said.

In Britain, young people were paid

either a regular weekly sum or a smaller figure with a lump sum at the end of the school year. The payments were also dependent on regular attendance, abstaining from part-time work, and performing well at exams. Figures released by the Higher Education Authority last week showed one-in- five new entrants to college in 2003 were children of employers and managers, but less than 7% were from families where the main income was from unskilled or semi-skilled manual labour.