Pre-school investment ‘could save billions’

THE Government could save billions of euro a year on dole payments to early school leavers by investing in education as early as pre- school, a children’s charity has claimed.

Barnardos estimates in a report on educational disadvantage that almost €10 billion is spent annually on job seekers’ allowance for people who leave school early.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) compiled various Irish and national research on the impact of early school leaving as part of the report.

Studies have shown that early school leavers are more likely to have health problems, are paid on average up to 20% less than those with Leaving Certificate or third level qualifications, and have a higher risk of being convicted of a crime, with 80% of a sample of Mountjoy prisoners in a 2002 study having left school before the age of 16.

Almost one in four unemployed people left school early, leading Barnardos to estimate the cost of welfare payments to more than 90,000 early school leavers to be €19 million a week or €9.9bn a year.

The figure may be slightly less since the Government halved the amount payable to 18 and 19-year-olds in last month’s mini budget.

Despite tens of millions of euro being spent by the Department of Education annually to combat educational disadvantage, official figures show that almost one in five teenagers never reach Leaving Certificate level.

A key recommendation of Barnardos, to help reduce the numbers dropping out, is to ensure quality pre-school education for all children. The Government has announced that it will fund a year of pre-school for all children from next year, but details have yet to emerge of how it will operate, what training requirements will be in place for service providers and how quality will be monitored.

ESRI research professor Emer Smyth said international research shows that pre-school education can have long-term effects on children’s social and educational progress, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“It’s a positive new scheme from the Government but they must ensure that places can be taken up by children from disadvantaged communities. There must also be a way of monitoring if the quality learning opportunities are being provided,” Prof Smyth said.

Barnardos advocacy director Norah Gibbons said staff working in poorer communities are hearing children and parents complain about the impact of cuts.

“In the last few years, we had started to see rays of hope from families that something was being done to combat educational disadvantage, that might have ended the generational cycle of children whose parents never got to Leaving Certificate having the same fate,” she said.

“Teachers and schools felt the Government was doing something but now, although we know the economic situation is dire, that hope is beginning to fade.”