School support cuts could reverse fall in dropout rates, warns expert

CUTS to school supports are hitting the most disadvantaged children and could reverse record falls in dropout rates, a leading education researcher has warned.

The most recent figures on the numbers who leave school early, obtained by the Irish Examiner, reveal that the proportion of entrants to second level in 2004 who made it to Leaving Certificate was the highest on record.

But while fewer than one-in-six — 8,826 of the 57,000 first years — dropped out, there are suggestions in the Department of Education statistics to be published today that those who are falling out of the system may be doing so at an earlier age.