Information on the literacy and numeracy levels of students at national level needs to be compiled to allow the success of programmes tackling disadvantage to be measured, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, has said.
Speaking on RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland programme - following revelations in The Irish Times - that over 30 per cent of primary school children in disadvantaged areas suffer from severe literacy problems, Mr Dempsey said he was "very, very well aware" of literacy levels in this country.
One way which this would be tackled was through the introduction of standard literacy and mathematical tests at primary level, details of which he had announced a few weeks ago, he said.
"I'm aware that pupils in disadvantaged areas for some time suffer . . . in the whole area of literacy and so on, and that's why there's about half a billion euro being spent annually on disadvantage out of my education budget," Mr Dempsey said.
"I'm very, very well aware that we have problems of literacy and I think about four weeks ago I announced an initiative which was immediately jumped on by the INTO, which was ... ensuring that we have national information in relation to this."
Mr Dempsey said he believed there were too many schemes "scattered right across the country", which were not focused enough and whose outcomes were not measured. Many of the problems arising within the education system also came from outside of it, he said.
"Schools that have already been targeted from an education point of view, that are getting the extra resources ... the resources are being focused and the question has to be asked, why is this not succeeding?" he said.
"Throwing resources, as the INTO seem to be suggesting ... at schools without assessing how well those schools are doing, how well the pupils in those schools are doing is not the solution.
"There's a half a billion euros being spent each year on designation. Now what I want to find out is why that is not working." However, the INTO yesterday said its own figures indicated that only €40 million was being spent to combat disadvantage at primary level. INTO president, Mr Austin Corcoran, said it rejected the suggestion that it simply wanted resources to be thrown at schools.
"The vast majority of the funding is being spent after second level. All the big spending seems to be done on older children," he said. "It is not about throwing resources at schools. What we want is a realistic level of resources at disadvantaged schools so that progress can be made."
The INTO had "no argument" with assessment as a means of evaluating how the system was performing, Mr Corcoran added. However, the latest report had provided Mr Dempsey with clear evidence that there were serious problems with literacy at primary level.
"He has an evaluation now. The only question is what is he going to do about it?" he asked. "It is no surprise that children from advantaged backgrounds do better at school, end up in third level and in better jobs. We are not doing enough to close these gaps."
Mr Tommy Byrne of the National Adult Literacy Agency said supporting parents was the "missing key" to low literacy levels in children, as they are the primary educators. He also called for a more comprehensive early childhood education system to be introduced across the State.
The price of illiteracy - Weekend: page 2