School leaver study saved by investment

A SMALL-SCALE version of important research on school-leavers, for which funding was cancelled by the Department of Education, is about to get under way thanks to investment by a range of bodies.

The Irish Examiner revealed a year ago that the department had withdrawn financial support it previously provided for the School Leavers’ Survey, by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) annually between 1980 and 1999 and again in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007.

The most recent report published last March showed that investment in disadvantaged schools has failed to significantly reduce the numbers dropping out of formal education before the Leaving Certificate. It showed that 86% of those who left school in 2004 and 2005 had sat the exam, although almost one-in-five males left school with no qualification higher than the Junior Certificate.

The continuation of the survey last year would have cost €250,000 but the Department of Education said it could not provide it because of budgetary pressures, while the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment which funded the survey in its early years was also unwilling to give the money.

However, the ESRI has secured similar funding for a smaller-scale study, through grants from the two second-level teacher unions (ASTI and TUI), the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), the Department of Education, Higher Education Authority and four other statutory bodies. The Leaving School in Ireland research is surveying about 1,000 students the ESRI had been tracking since they started at 12 second-level schools as part of a longitudinal study.

While the previous study normally involved up to 3,500 participants, ESRI higher research officer Dr Selina McCoy said working with the smaller group may also have benefits.

“This research may provide a richer source of information because we have background data on these young people every year through their second-level education. We did standardised tests with them since first-year and now we are finding out about their choices after school,” she said.

Contact has been made with the study group, who left school in 2007 or 2008, through a web-based questionnaire about any education and training they have done since leaving school, and any experiences of the labour market. The ESRI is to start detailed phone and face-to-face interviews and expects to have preliminary findings before the summer.

However, Dr McCoy said the ESRI is hopeful that a Government department will restore funding to allow them revert to the more detailed School Leavers Survey for those who left second level in 2008 and 2009.

NAPD director, Clive Byrne, said the importance of information obtained from the surveys to education policy meant the organisation was more than happy to contribute to the cost of the School Leavers Ireland study.