Schools ‘not preparing for real life’

PARENTS believe second-level education does not prepare their children for adult life and schools need to provide more career guidance, major research has found.

It also shows that young people rely more on their parents than their schools for advice on which subjects to study, whether to choose higher or ordinary level, and planning for their futures.

The study by Government think-tank, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), will be published in the summer and is based on a survey of parents whose children are in fifth or sixth year, and detailed interviews with more than 50 mothers and fathers.

While more than half of parents were very satisfied with the range of subjects available and the personal and social supports offered to their children, only one-third were as pleased with the level of career guidance and one-in-four were dissatisfied.

The ESRI found parents had concerns about the absence of formal guidance, as demonstrated by the father of a male student.

“It would have been nice if we could have gone in and spoken to, say, a guidance teacher even at that early stage, like the end of first year, and perhaps try and push him in the direction that he might best be able to perform at,” he told researchers.

The Institute of Guidance Counsellors was critical of a study by the ESRI earlier this year which suggested low levels of guidance were a factor in some poorer students not going to third-level. Parents found teachers and their children the most helpful sources of information about their progress but the study shows wide variation across different schools in the level of contact with parents.

Parents rated how students got on with others and learned to communicate among the biggest benefits of second-level education, but preparation of teenagers for adult life and work was perceived as relatively low.

A woman whose daughter is now at college said “It doesn’t really prepare them for actually leaving school and going into the real world. If they go into a career, they’ll have to put things into practice.”

Another parent said students leave school with no idea about basic things like how to tax a car, open a bank account or compare interest rates.

The findings were outlined at the annual conference of the National Parents Council-Post Primary by ESRI researchers Delma Byrne and Emer Smyth.