Innovation skills absent from Irish schools

THE creativity and innovation skills needed to foster economic growth feature less than the EU average in Irish schools programmes, an international study has found.

The shortfall highlighted in an EU Commission update on how member countries’ education systems are performing shows that creativity, innovation and similar terms are three times more prominent in the curricula for primary and second-level schools in the North.

The emphasis on these skills was measured for the commission’s Joint Research Centre study across subjects under the arts, languages, maths, sciences, social and personal education headings, with the use of terms like entrepreneurship, invention, cutting edge and risk-taking also sought in the analysis of Ireland’s school curricula.

These and similar terms were higher in 11 of the 36 EU countries or national regions, including member states such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Latvia, which may be directly competing with Ireland for investment, particularly in research and product innovation.

Following the Government’s Innovation Taskforce report last year, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has begun consultations on the role of innovation in education, from pre-school settings upward.

The commission report also refers to an online survey in the 27 EU countries showing that Irish teachers are among the strongest believers in the important role of creativity in education.

The report gives an update on how EU countries are progressing towards targets on a range of education measurements set in 2009.

Half of Ireland’s 30 to 34-year-olds having a third level qualification puts us ahead of all other states and well above the 2020 target of 40%.

The data also records an improvement in school dropout rates, as the proportion of those aged 18 to 24 who left education early fell from almost 15% to 11.3% between 2000 and 2009.

Of concern, however, is the falling standards in reading and maths revealed last December in the OECD’s comparison of 15-year-olds in developed countries. With 17% of Irish teenagers achieving low scores in the most recent tests in 2009, up from 11% in 2000, and 21% below standard at maths, significant work may be needed to reach an EU target to bring these proportions below 15% by 2020.

Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said this highlights the importance of measures to improve literacy and numeracy in the Programme for Government.

“This report underlines that while progress was made over the past decade in a number of areas, most notably in relation to reducing early school-leaving and increasing third level participation rates, major educational challenges remain.”

The 6.3% of adults who took part in four weeks or more of lifelong learning courses in 2009 compares to an EU average of 9.3% and is well off the EU targets of 12.5% by 2010 and 15% in 2020.