Educational attainment and school outcomes
Deputy Donnelly questioned Ireland’s poor international ranking on educational attainment and sought the Minister’s response. The Minister said extra investment had been made and early school-leaving rates had improved, but the Deputy was prevented from continuing.
Only 15 minutes remain for this business and 19 Deputies have indicated that they want to speak but I very much doubt that I will reach them all. I call Deputy Donnelly.
Comment on this
Page 93 of the programme for Government includes a commitment to improving outcomes for every student. A new report published by the Bertelsmann Foundation reported on today in the Irish media makes very sobering reading. It ranks Ireland 21 out of the 28 countries on educational attainment. A figure I found quite startling is that 80% of the working age population have attained at least upper secondary education. I acknowledge that share has gone up in recent years and I imagine that is something the Minister is examining. However, we are well below the best in the class on this. Will the Minister provide an update on his plans for bringing legislation forward to improve the completion rates for secondary education in Ireland?
Comment on this
We have brought forward a €1 billion extra investment in education and we have set a target that we will be the best in Europe within a decade. On the issue of early school leaving and drop-out, we are now making huge progress. We have seen our position drop from 14th place to seventh. In respect of people in the age bracket 20 to 24, we are now second best in Europe in terms of those who have completed higher level second level, so we are one of the best in Europe. I admit that if one looks at the older population, we are not as good but it is much harder to influence people who are long since out of the education system. We are putting huge emphasis on our work on delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, and on improving literary standards. I would also say that the Bertelsmann Foundation is a very partial view; it does not look at, for example, our investment in special educational needs or our investment in bringing 32% more people from disadvantaged backgrounds into our higher education sector. Therefore, it is a partial measure, but it has lessons for us. Our investment in the preschool sector clearly needs to continue to improve, and the Minister, Deputy Zappone, has put in place a very ambitious programme to do that. Much of this data is quite old.