Teachers unions concerned at poor results in teen literacy tests

Teachers' unions said today that a report which highlights a dramatic decline in literacy standards among Irish teens over the past 10 years comes as "a bolt out of the blue".

The OECD study ranks the reading ability of Irish 15-year-olds in 17th place out of 39 countries.

We were placed fifth in 2000.

General Secretary of the INTO, Sheila Noonan, believes the training programme for teachers should be reviewed.

"The Minister (for Education Mary Coughlan) herself did announce that she was going to look at consultation on a literacy strategy and we would certainly want to be part of that process," said Ms Noonan.