THE GOVERNMENT is determined to inject a sense of urgency in the battle to boost literacy standards, the Minister for Education has said. Ruairí Quinn was speaking yesterday as a literacy initiative in disadvantaged schools delivered encouraging results.
An OECD report last year found that close to one-quarter of all 15- year-olds were functionally illiterate. Ireland has dropped from fifth to 17th in literacy in the past decade, the sharpest decline of any developed nation. By some estimates, up to 30 per cent of pupils in disadvantaged primary schools have serious literacy difficulties.
The literacy initiative in Darndale, Dublin, produced striking results after teachers were given in-school professional development training. One teacher who took part said she had never received on-site professional development in 30 years teaching until the Write to Read initiative.
Atlantic Philanthropies, the funding vehicle of Irish American billionaire Chuck Feeney, helped to fund the project, which is set to be rolled out to 1,200 pupils in other areas of Dublin including Bluebell, the inner city and Inchicore.
The Government is committed to providing 90 minutes for literacy tuition on a daily basis, a key part of the Write to Read programme. It is not clear, however, if the same level of resources will be available to teachers elsewhere.
The main findings of the Darndale pilot project were:
* The numbers of children below the 10th percentile in reading on a standardised test were reduced by 75 per cent;
* At the end of the study, 20 per cent of children were above the 80th percentile whereas there had been no children in this category at the beginning of the study;
* This evidence clearly shows that given the right conditions, there should be no obstacles preventing children from disadvantaged backgrounds achieving the level of their more advantaged peers.
The Programme for Government makes a commitment to developing a national literacy and numeracy strategy.
The Minister thanked Dr Eithne Kennedy of St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, who developed the literacy initiative.
“Write to Read has shown that targeting continuing professional development for teachers and schools can have a significant effect on improving literacy standards,” he said, “and that is why the provision of such continuing professional development, especially in disadvantaged schools, is a core part of the literacy strategy”.
On school patronage, Mr Quinn is standing over his demand that 50 per cent of all primary schools should be divested. Last week, the Catholic Schools Partnership suggested the transfer of some 1,500 primary schools was unrealistic and that a 10 per cent transfer rate may be more feasible.
