Funding cuts hurt supports to keep students at school

Funding cuts are restricting out-of-school supports intended to help reduce the risks of students dropping out, research has found.

The need to pay sessional staff for after-school activities has led to such elements of the School Completion Programme suffering more than others, an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) review of the programme shows.

It examined the operation of the School Completion Programme, which supports around 36,000 young people in 700 schools and 800 more who are not at school at a cost of almost €25m last year.