Hanafin ‘trying to rubbish’ dropout figures

THE Government has been accused of trying to rubbish Census figures revealed by the Irish Examiner which show that school dropout rates have doubled in the past decade.

Data in a report last month from the 2006 Census and compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that 6.3% of 15-year-olds were no longer in full-time education last year, compared to a mere 3.1% of the same age group in 1996.

Raising the figures in the Dáil yesterday, Fine Gael education spokesperson Brian Hayes said the fact that 3,700 15-year-olds had left post-primary education last year showed Education Minister Mary Hanafin and the Government had failed to tackle the problem for the past 10 years.

But the minister suggested there were question marks around the reliability of the statistics, repeating an assertion by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in response to a question from Mr Hayes last week.

“The CSO provided this information to the Taoiseach, stating it was not a straightforward question to 15-year-olds about their standard of education and whether they were still in school. The question was to the effect that if they were under age 15 they should skip to number 34 on the next page, and the CSO has said that a higher number than expected skipped the entire question on education,” Ms Hanafin said.

“It is widely accepted that we could not depend on that figure because of the nature of the way in which that question was put. It was a filtering question rather than a direct question put to 15-year-olds,” she said.

Mr Hayes replied this created “an unusual situation where the minister is attempting to rubbish the independent impartial figures produced by the CSO”.

“That is astonishing because her own department has used the CSO figures for the past 10 years to back up its own case,” he said.

Mr Hayes asked why the National Educational Welfare Board had not been given the 50 extra officers it had sought to help children from falling through the education system.

Ms Hanafin replied that the board already has more than 100 staff, but that the work of 620 people linking directly with young people at risk of dropping out of school was just as valuable.

“The NEWB is the stick element of it. The rest of them are the carrot element, and both are necessary,” she said.