Written Answers. - School Absenteeism.
Brian O'Shea
Question:
133
Mr. O'Shea
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
if his attention has been drawn to the high rates of absenteeism among post-primary students due to late night employment; the discussions which he has had with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[21466/00]
I assure the Deputy that I share his concern about non-school attendance caused by whatever reason. Due to the link between non-school attendance and early school leaving, my Department has initiated a programme comprising both legislative measures and special targeted initiatives to combat the problem of non-school attendance and early school leaving.
The recently enacted Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, will replace and reform current school attendance legislation. In the course of preparing this legislation, I consulted with all relevant ministerial colleagues, including the Minister of State with responsibility for labour affairs. The Act provides for the introduction of a comprehensive school attendance service with responsibility for school attendance being given to a newly established body – the National Educational Welfare Board. The focus of the national authority will be the provision of assistance and support through locally-based educational welfare officers to schools and families rather than on penalties for non-attendance at school. The Act also includes specific measures for the early identification and support of children at risk of dropping out of the school system.
The Act provides measures designed specifically with early school leavers in mind. Section 29 provides that a young person (in effect in most cases 16 and 17 year olds) may register with the National Educational Welfare Board if they leave school before their 18th birthday. The board will then, following consultation with the young person, parents and others prepare a plan for the young person's continuing education and training. Once that is done, the board will issue a cer tificate to the young person concerned. The section goes on to provide that an employer cannot employ a young person unless he or she is the holder of a valid certificate. An employer is also obliged to inform the board within a month after a young person has been employed. The provisions do not prevent young people taking up employment but seek to ensure that a balance is struck between their employment rights and their future educational, training and social needs. My Department is in the process of implementing the Act.
The Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996, precludes young people between the ages of 16 and 18 who are still at school, from working after 10 p.m. on any night when there is school the following day. My colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, has recently recruited an additional seven inspectors to assist with the enforcement of this legislation.
However, legislative solutions are not in themselves enough. For that reason I believe that it is vitally important that we also have in place strategies to encourage and support schools in retaining pupils to completion of senior cycle. In this regard the eight to 15 year old early school leavers initiative was introduced in 1998. One of its key objectives is to test models of response to the problem of early school leaving with a view to the integration of such models after structured evaluation into mainstream policy and practice. The projects strand of this initiative involves 17 specific projects in 14 areas. The initiative was originally introduced for the school years 1998-99 and 1999-2000. I have decided to extend the existing 17 projects for a further phase, for the period 1 July 2000 until 31 August 2002. Funding of £2.82 million has been allocated to this initiative for 2000.
In June 1999 the stay in school retention initiative at second level was launched in 58 schools. This marks a significant departure from traditional policy in that funding of up to £40,000 per annum is being granted to targeted schools on the basis of plans which they were helped to design themselves. The purpose of this initiative is to prevent early school leaving and raise senior cycle completion rates. At the end of May 2000 an additional 59 schools were invited to participate in the initiative.
Preventing early school leaving is not a simple matter and, to have a real chance of success, the solutions must be wide-ranging and include strategies for identification, balancing of rights, statutory safeguards and school empowerment.
