School drop-out rate - Keep our kids off the scrap heap

TODAY’S front-page report, showing that one in four teenagers in some second-level schools are dropping out before the Leaving Certificate, is a wake-up call for the Government.

It comes as no surprise that the drop-out rate is worst in disadvantaged urban areas, where poor funding and large class sizes are an ongoing problem for pupils, teachers and parents alike. Marked progress in student retention has been made in the past decade as Government spending on disadvantage focused on schools serving deprived communities. But the latest statistics indicate the drop-out rate remains unacceptable, underlining the need for state investment in neglected areas.

Vocational schools and community colleges across the country are more likely to enrol a higher proportion of children from poorer families. And while the improvement in the drop-out rate is to be welcomed, it is worrying that one in four students opted out early from the crop who began school in 2001 and would have completed their education either in 2006 or 2007. By any yardstick, the retention rate of 74% in vocational schools compares poorly with the 84% completion rate of students who also started in voluntary secondary schools that year.

Anecdotally, the drop-out rate increased during the so-called Celtic Tiger era when jobs were thick on the ground and restless students were lured by an economy awash with cash. In contrast with that disastrous period, characterised by the excesses of greedy developers, reckless bankers and blinkered politicians, the spectres of unemployment, emigration and poverty stalk the land today.

In social terms, the tendency of young people to drop out of school can cause serious problems, including an increase in criminality. Secondary teachers have warned that drugs can heighten the danger of students dropping out. The crisis of early school leaving is a Europe-wide phenomenon and 2010 was set as the deadline for halving to 8% the drop-out rate across the EU. An OECD report has ranked us 21 out of 27 developed countries in spending per second-level student.

Unfortunately, in today’s difficult times, it is hard enough for young people with degrees to get a job. So the prospect for those who leave school early is indeed bleak. For Michael Moriarty of the Irish Vocational Education Association, “the greatest pleasure for us in the vocational sector is to take somebody from a disadvantaged background at high risk of early school leaving and keep them in the schooling system”.

Despite such admirable sentiments, Ireland’s financial crisis means that young people who leave school early will have enormous difficulty finding work now or in the foreseeable future. With the economy mired in difficulty and more than 430,000 people out of work, the appalling vista facing school drop-outs is that they risk ending up on the scrap heap.