School policies that add up - Reading and writing skills

YESTERDAY’S confirmation that primary pupils’ reading and maths skills have improved significantly for the first time in 30 years is to be unambiguously welcomed.

These foundation skills are essential to getting a good education and later a successful career. Without these basic life skills, prospects can be grim and options very limited.

More than 8,000 pupils in 150 primary schools were assessed last May by the Educational Research Centre and it was found that reading and maths skills have improved significantly since the last assessment in 2009.

This is a victory for the teachers involved and for the policies advanced, especially those brought forward by the last education minister Ruairi Quinn, who made a significant improvement in core literacy and numeracy skills one of his primary objectives. He may take considerable satisfaction in the fact that DEIS Band 1 schools showed a significant increase in English reading at second class and smaller increases in maths in second and sixth class. Band 2 schools had a significant increase in overall reading and in maths at second class.

Speaking yesterday, Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan said that the national literacy and numeracy targets set for 2020 have been met. That is a wonderful achievement but hopefully one that will not result in complacency; rather it is an opportunity to be even more ambitious for our children.