Pupils twice as likely to dislike being in school

Irish 10 year-olds are twice as likely as their international counterparts not to like being in school and also show a greater aversion to having to study maths.

Wed, 12 Jun, 2013 - 01:00

Stephen Rogers and Niall Murray

According to a report by the Educational Research Centre at St Patrick’s College in Dublin, almost one in three boys (37%) said they did not like going to school compared to 16% of girls.

The aversion to schooling is particularly prevalent in DEIS band 2 schools. Those are schools in urban disadvantaged areas which receive extra educational supports from the State but not to the same level as the most disadvantaged schools, which are in band 1 of DEIS.

The report also found that teacher satisfaction is noticeably lower in DEIS Urban Band 2 schools than in other school types, reflecting an assertion that teachers’ commitment to the profession is “more persistently challenged” in schools serving more disadvantaged communities.

The report’s authors said: “The higher teacher satisfaction found in Band 1 schools may suggest that the additional supports they receive may help to mitigate some of the challenges faced by teachers in DEIS schools.”

The report finds issues with the way science is taught. Teachers reported being “much less confident” teaching science than maths, and said the percentage who said they were “very confident” was two thirds of the average internationally.

“Irish teachers’ lack of confidence in these areas may be considered in light of their relatively low participation in subject-specific continuing professional development [CPD].”

A major issue identified was that just 12-40 hours of their entire three-year degree was given over to compulsory curriculum science methodology course.

Continuing professional development appears to be a widespread problem here. The report found Irish teachers spent less time on reading-related CPD, and were “far less likely to report reading children’s books for the purpose of professional development”.

Teachers were criticised for failing to share expertise with their colleagues. “For example, about one-quarter of Irish pupils are taught by teachers who never or almost never discussed teaching with their colleagues, or worked with their teaching colleagues in preparing instructional materials.”