Ireland’s literacy and numeracy ranking falls

SUCCESS in tackling early school-leaving may be a factor in Ireland’s recent drop in average reading and maths standards.

In a decade from the late 1990s to the late 2000s, the proportion of students who dropped out of school before Leaving Certificate fell from 23% to less than 19%. The most recent statistics, published in yesterday’s Irish Examiner, show that the recession has also kept more students in school.

The number of first years in 2004 who finished school reached a record high of 85.5%, and above-average falls in dropout rates were seen in the most disadvantaged schools.