80% of nine-year-olds are taught by women
And nearly half of all nine-year-olds were taught by teachers who felt very or fairly stressed by their jobs. However, while teaching may be a stressful occupation, nearly all the children had teachers who were at least fairly satisfied with their jobs.
The longitudinal study of children — Growing Up in Ireland — which is looking at the lives of 8,500 nine-year-olds and their families also found that parents had a higher estimation of their children’s abilities.
Six out of 10 parents felt their child was above average at reading, while more than half believed their child was above average at maths. In addition, more than three-quarters of parents expected their child to achieve a university degree.
The children’s teachers, however, gave more ratings of average or below average than the parents did for reading and maths abilities.
Just a third of children were said by their teachers to be above average at maths and just under 40% were rated as above average at reading.
The study also found that children spent most time on English — four hours a week on average, with three and a half on Irish and maths and just over two hours on religious studies.
Subjects such as history, geography, science and art were typically allocated one hour per week.
When asked how much they liked maths, reading and Irish, the least preferred subject was Irish.
The study also found that 96% of children were in schools that never used expulsion and 4% were in schools that rarely used it. Just 6% were in schools where children had been suspended. The most frequently used form of discipline was a verbal report to parents.
Most children had teachers who felt that nearly all the pupils were well-behaved in the classroom and showed respect to them.
While eight out of 10 parents blamed the child’s illness or injury for missing school, a family vacation was the second reported reason at 16%.
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