Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 30 Jun 1994

Vol. 444 No. 7

Written Answers. - School Drop Out Rates.

Noel Ahern

Question:

159 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Education the school drop out rates for each group up to 15 years of age and specifically for the Ballymun/Finglas areas of Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the plans, if any, she has to deal with this problem.

Minister for Education (Ms Bhreathnach)

School attendance committees are responsible for the enforcement of the School Attendance Act in certain parts of Dublin and in Cork and Waterford. In all other areas the Garda Síochána have responsibility. Consequently figures for school drop out rates are not in the normal course available to my Department.

A review of the operation of the School Attendance Act, including an examination of the roles and responsibilities of the various agencies involved was carried out by officers of my Department recently and I published their report entitled School Attendance/Truancy Report on 8 April 1994.

Some research findings examined for this report indicated that up to 8 per cent of primary school leavers may not transfer to second-level schools at all. The report pointed out that the limited data available may mask cases of severe drop-out rates in schools serving socio-economically disadvantaged areas. The report also points out that the absence of more detailed information is a serious obstacle to a balanced analysis of the issue and it made a number of recommendations in that regard.

I am proposing to make the report a basis for developing my proposals in relation to school attendance with particular regard to the functions that may be appropriate to regional education councils. I am making copies of the report widely available and will be happy to receive the considered views of all interested groups.

My Department has adopted a range of strategies to help prevent early school leaving and under achievement. These include — early intervention measures to provide additional supports for young people at risk aimed at optimising their participation in and benefit from the education system. These include initiatives such as pre-schooling, remedial and home/school/community liaison services, co-ordination with other agencies, guidance and psychological services, and ancillary services and resources for schools in disadvantaged areas. A limited number of youth encounter projects are also provided for young people who have either become involved in minor delinquency or are at risk of doing so, and who have become alienated from the mainstream school system. There is a youth encounter project in Finglas. — curricular reform — junior cert schools programme, the leaving certificate vocational programme and the applied leaving cert programme — to encourage an improvement in retention rates to completion of senior cycle to 90 per cent of the total cohort — second chance education and training through the provision of youthreach for unqualified early school leavers over 15. This programme is provided jointly by FÁS and the vocational education committees in community training workshops and vocational education committee Youthreach centres respectively. One thousand six hundred youthreach places are provided in the education sector at present, and an additional 400 places will be provided before the end of this year. There is a vocational education committee Youthreach centre in Ballymun and there are two FÁS community training workshops in Finglas.