Educational underachievement will be tackled - Ruane

Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, has told the Assembly she is implementing a range of reforms which will tackle educational underachievement.

The Minister was speaking during an Assembly debate on educational underachievement. Ms Ruane said: “A key priority for me is to tackle underachievement and promote the raising of standards and equality in all our schools.

“Underachievement in our schools can have damaging impacts on children, their families, communities, our economy and society. In this challenging economic climate, raising educational standards and eliminating underachievement is more important than ever.

“We have much to be proud of in our schools, but too many children leave school without high levels of achievement. Getting five good GCSE grades, including Maths and English or Irish, is recognised as the key to sound employment prospects, but almost half our young people do not achieve this. Children from disadvantaged areas are less likely to achieve at this level, 27% get five good GCSEs compared to 60% of their more advantaged peers. But the problem begins much earlier with one in five children leaving primary school without having achieved the expected level in literacy and numeracy. That is simply not good enough.

“I will shortly publish 'Every School a Good School', our new school improvement policy, which will ensure that every young person has access to high-quality education. We are also developing a literacy and numeracy strategy based on existing good practice in our schools. Together, these reforms will play a key role in raising standards.

“The current system of post-primary transfer based on academic selection has been shown to contribute to underachievement as it has marginalised children who opted out of the test. My Transfer 2010 proposal is Department of Education policy and if schools follow it there will be no high stakes testing of 10 year olds. Transfer 2010 offers a smooth transition to a new system of admissions to an education that every child is entitled to.”

Concluding her comments in the debate, the Minister said: “My reform programme aims to deliver equality in education and raise standards. I want to make sure that every young person has the same opportunity to succeed, regardless of socio-economic background, gender or race. Every school therefore must be a good school.”

Notes to Editors:

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