Title: Investing in Education: Combating Educational Disadvantage
1Investing in Education Combating Educational
Disadvantage
- Emer Smyth and Selina McCoy
- Barnardos Written Out, Written Off Education
Seminar - Chester Beatty Library
- 13 May 2009
2Outline of presentation
- Overview of educational inequality
- Consequences and costs of early school leaving
- Educational policy in relation to disadvantage
- Issues for policy
3Educational inequality in Ireland
- Unequal outcomes at every stage of the
educational career - Differences in achievement/grades
- Leaving Certificate completion rates
- Transition to third-level education
4Primary reading scores and mothers education
(ERC, 2005)
5Leaving Certificate completion
6Consequences of early leaving
- Early school leaving has striking effects on a
range of adult outcomes - Early leavers are more likely to be unemployed
and, if unemployed, to be employed for a longer
period
7Unemployment rate (2008)
8Employment
- Early leavers are more likely to work in less
skilled jobs - They receive lower average pay
9Lone motherhood
10Health outcomes
- Early leavers are more likely be in poor/fair
rather than good health - Higher rates of anxiety/depression
- Higher rates of smoking and heavy drinking
- Greater dependency on medical card
11Medical card ownership (early leavers v. LC
group)
12Broader social outcomes
- Vast majority of those in prison are early
leavers - In 2002, committal rate of 46.6 per 1,000 early
leavers v. 1.6 for LC - Consequences for educational outcomes among the
next generation
13Costs for society of early leaving
- Welfare payments for unemployed and lone parents
- Income tax foregone for those not in employment
- Health Utilisation of health services
- Crime Cost of imprisonment
- Reinforces existing social and economic
inequality
14Educational policy
- Focus on targeted provision for schools with a
concentration of children from disadvantaged
backgrounds (DEIS) - New ESRI evidence shows that DEIS schools do
indeed have a high concentration of disadvantaged
students
15Students with difficulties (gt25) Primary schools
16Students with difficulties (gt25) Second-level
schools
17Profile of DEIS schools
- Less likely to be over-subscribed
- Higher concentration of newcomers and Travellers
- Second-level higher of students with learning
or physical disabilities - School climate behaviour and engagement of
students involvement of parents
18But not all disadvantaged children are in DEIS
(second-level) schools
19Perception of DEIS scheme
- DEIS principals broadly positive about the scheme
and School Completion Programme - Class size reductions
- Resources and planning for literacy/numeracy
- Provision of meals within school
- Capacity to promote parental involvement
- But issues raised by principals and stakeholders
in relation to policy more generally
20Issues for policy Early intervention
- Gap on entry to school
- Children start off behind others, way behind
the starting line, children who present at school
significantly behind their peers Basically
theyre playing catch-up from then on. - Importance of preschool education (potential of
the new ECCE scheme)
21Issues for policy Targeting
- Targeting disadvantaged schools alone is not
enough not all disadvantaged children are in
DEIS schools - Reported difficulty among principals in providing
information for targeting - There is anecdotal evidence that ... the idea is
you talk up your school, or talk down your
school. If youre being truly honest about your
school, that can put you at a disadvantage
Schools can lose out if youre being too honest
22Issues for policy Evaluation
- Lack of Data and Evaluation
- The lack of data generally is a very
significant problem I mean how many children do
actually leave straight from primary school? At
this stage in the 21st century we cant actually
identify that, bit of a nonsense really! - We just dont do it evaluation, we dont have
a culture here. We have a fear of it in some
ways - DEIS - emphasis on evaluation
23Issues for Policy Fragmentation
- Schools do not exist in isolation need for
joined-up policy across education, health and
welfare services - You cant treat the child in isolation. We
would be able to pinpoint at four years of age
children who are at risk for a number of reasons,
it could be speech and language, it could be more
emotional, or lack of emotional, development. And
I dont think as a society that we are providing
those services. Were being reactive rather
than proactive.
24Recent changes post-Budget
- Huge potential of new preschool scheme
- Ring-fencing of DEIS schools
- But potential impact of some measures on DEIS
schools - Likely impact on disadvantaged children in
non-DEIS schools book grants grants for
specific groups programme grants SEN students
25Recent changes On the ground
- I think its the start of chipping away and
dismantling a lot of the foundations for the
weaker students in the system. - School has to be more than books, school has to
be an experience for children and the sports and
the games and the extra-curricular thats what
has made our education system good. There was an
emotional reaction almost to the Budget, they
could see all of this being pulled All of that
qualitative enrichment of the curriculum, these
things arent trips, they are enrichment of the
curriculum. They are going and they are gone.
26Final words
- Educational equity is a moral imperative for a
society in which education is a crucial
determinant of life chances. (Henry Levin, US,
2009) - Were losing huge potential here.
- (DEIS school principal, 2009)