Fall in Irish teens’ literacy could be down to attention
While acknowledging there were declines in Ireland’s standards, on reading and maths, compared to other developed countries, Department of Education chief inspector, Dr Harold Hislop said reduced student engagement and some other demographic changes are likely to account for a significant element of the drop.
The results, last December, of tests among 15-year- olds in more than 30 countries in 2009 showed Irish reading scores fell more than in any other country since 2000. The fall from significantly above-average to the OECD average meant Ireland dropped from 5th to 17th internationally.
Our average scores in maths fell significantly below the OECD average, pushing Ireland from 17th to 26th in the global ranking since 2003, but Irish teens maintained their 14th place in science literacy.
Early analysis by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) in Dublin last year suggested rises in the numbers of migrant students and pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools may have been factors. But new ERC research now shows there was a systematic disengagement with the test among the 3,400 students at 144 schools.
ERC researcher Dr Jude Cosgrove said the reasons students switched off are as yet unexplained, but there could be testing fatigue from a rising number of postgraduate research studies being done in schools.
The research suggests that the proportion of males below minimum level of reading competency almost doubled to 23% since 2000.
