Written Answers. - School Truancy.
Desmond J. O'Malley
Ceist:
56
Mr. O'Malley
asked the
Minister for Education
the progress, if any, the Task Force on Truancy has made; if up-to-date statistics in relation to truancy are available; and if a date has been determined for the task force to report progress.
[5122/95]
Pat Upton
Ceist:
77
Dr. Upton
asked the
Minister for Education
the plans, if any, she has to deal with the problem of truancy and early dropout from school; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
[4996/95]
Tony Gregory
Ceist:
90
Mr. Gregory
asked the
Minister for Education
the percentage of children in Dublin 1 over the last ten years who were absent from primary school and required the attention of a school attendance officer; the number who failed to go on to second level school; the number who dropped out before junior certificate level; the number who dropped out before completing the leaving certificate; and the comparative percentage with the national average in each instance.
[4225/95]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 56, 77 and 90 together.
Responsibility for enforcement of the School Attendance Act in Dublin city and in certain other parts of the country rests with the relevant school attendance committees and the school attendance officers. In all other areas, responsibility rests with the relevant Garda Authorities. Data on the number of cases which came to the attention of school attendance officers or the Garda is not readily available to my Department.
None of the ordinary national schools located in Dublin 1 reported any case of pupils in ordinary classes dropping out of full-time education to my Department for the school year 1993/94, the most recent school year for which data are available. Data are not available for numbers dropping out in these schools ten years ago. There was one national school in the area which caters for traveller children drawn from outside the locality and which reported 11 pupils as leaving school without proceeding to another school or training centre.
Recent analysis of data by my Department indicates that for the State as a whole, between 1 to 1.5 per cent of pupils attending primary schools fail to transfer to second level.
My Department estimates that in 1993-94 there was a drop-out rate before the junior certificate of approximately 10 per cent for pupils attending second-level schools in the Dublin 1 area. The corresponding rate for the country as a whole is 5 per cent. A further 15 per cent left these schools before completing the leaving certificate compared to a corresponding average of 13 per cent for the State as a whole.
I am concerned at the current lack of adequate data on non-school attendance. This deficiency was one of the issues identified in the report of my Department's working group on school attendance/truancy.
In keeping with its commitment to address the problems of truancy and early drop-out, the Government has charged my colleague the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Austin Currie, with special responsibility for this area.
The Minister of State recently announced the establishment of a special Task Force to: examine submissions received from interested parties in response to the truancy report, and examine the measures required to address this problem. The task force has already had a number of meetings and the question of improved data availability is one of the key issues being addressed.
The Minister of State is maintaining a direct interest in the progress of the work of the task force and has directed that it report at the earliest possible date.
