Third of pupils too hungry to do school work, survey finds

Up to a third of primary school pupils in Dublin's south inner city are either often or every day "too hungry to do their work in school", while up to 15 per cent regularly do not get enough sleep, a study on early school leaving has found.

The report, Count Us In, found anxiety to be a major factor in lack of sleep among children.

Carried out by the Educational Disadvantage Centre at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, the report will be published tomorrow by the South Inner City Development Association. It is the largest sample of primary and secondary school students taken in the area.

The authors, Dr Paul Downes and Dr Catherine Maunsell, carried out in-depth interviews with pupils in fifth and sixth class in seven primary schools and with first-, second- and fifth-year students in three secondary schools. They also interviewed teachers and community workers.

Their study examines why "many" young people are "falling through the gaps" despite the Government-funded School Completion Programme and extra resource teachers for disadvantaged schools.

Dr Downes said there was no precise data on early school leaving for the area, although he said "as a socially disadvantaged area it has a historically high rate" and pointed to one study, in 2002, which found 82.5 per cent of students at one secondary school left before their Leaving Certificate.

"An issue of concern is the stark gender difference already at primary level. Four times more boys than girls stated they did not intend to stay on until LC," says the report.

The proportion of students who did not want to stay to Leaving Certificate increased from 0 per cent in some primary schools to an average of 4.5 per cent in first year, to 12 per cent in secondary school.

Between 6 per cent and 33 per cent of pupils in the national schools were either often, very often or every day too hungry to work in school. The figure was 33 per cent in two of the seven schools, and the average was 18 per cent, or one in five, children.

Fifteen per cent of primary school pupils were "at risk of lowered academic performance as a result of fewer sleep hours". This proportion was 26 per cent in one primary school.

Reasons given for inadequate sleep were anxiety, bereavement, fear of ghosts and hunger. Between 6 per cent and 26 per cent of primary pupils were not going to bed until after midnight.

On substance abuse, 15 per cent of second-year students had experienced illegal drugs, and this rose to 50 per cent of fifth years.

Of the 116 second years interviewed, two had tried crack, one had tried ecstasy and 11 had had alcohol and marijuana simultaneously. Of the 98 fifth years interviewed, 10 per cent had taken cocaine in the last year.

The report says "there is evidence [that] isolated teachers contribute to an extremely negative experience of school, a negative experience that constitutes a risk factor for early school leaving". It calls for help for these teachers to change "from a highly authoritarian teaching style" to a "strengths-based focus in their interaction with children".