TEENAGERS IN Ireland have a good knowledge of politics and current affairs, but they have poor language skills compared to their EU counterparts.
A European civics survey ranked Irish teenagers seventh on a test of civic knowledge, above the international average. The highest-scoring countries are Finland and Denmark.
On languages, more students in Ireland than on average across Europe reported that they could not communicate in or understand another European language. Irish students also had comparatively less interest in learning another European language than on average across Europe.
Other key findings include 30 per cent of Irish students report that their parents are “very interested” in political and social issues, higher than the international average. There is a strong relationship between parental interest in political and social issues and students’ civic knowledge.
In Ireland, 52 per cent of students reported that they trusted the national government, and 48 per cent trust the media. Eighty-seven per cent reported they expect to vote in future national elections.
Students here were very familiar with basic facts. Eighty-seven per cent could identify the flag of the EU; in contrast, only 56 per cent of students in Ireland knew the number of EU member states and only 49 per cent knew who voted to elect MEPs.
Students in Ireland tended to favour both a common European currency and further EU expansion to a greater extent than on average across the countries surveyed.
However, they were less in favour of European unification than the average. They also tended to have less positive attitudes towards freedom of migration in Europe.
Up to 38 countries participated in two international studies of civic and citizenship education. The studies focused on second-year students (aged 13-14) their teachers, and school principals.
This was the first time since 1971 that Ireland participated in a survey examining these issues.
