Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 141: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the percentage of children who leave primary school with literacy difficulties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12974/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department does not collect data on the literacy levels achieved by children leaving the primary system. The nearest points of reference available are the results of a survey of primary school children at the end of fifth class and the results of the OECD programme for international student assessment, PISA. Data currently available for fifth class children relate to the 1998 survey and the PISA survey of 15 year olds, which was conducted in 2003.

In the 1998 survey of fifth class pupils, teachers' ratings indicated that 10.5% of pupils were regarded as having "weak" or "inadequate" levels of reading and 9.2% were regarded as having reading achievement levels at or below third class level. In the 2003 PISA survey, the percentage of Irish students whose performance in reading was at or below level 1, the lowest level of proficiency, was 11%. The corresponding OECD average was 19.1%. Closer examination of this category of low achievement reveals that 2.7% of Irish students performed below level 1 compared with the OECD average of 6.7%. The results of the first cycle of PISA which took place in 2000 displayed similar differences in favour of Ireland.

The consistency between the teachers' ratings of pupils in fifth class and the achievement data from the PISA survey would suggest that the best estimate of the percentage of pupils leaving primary school with literacy difficulties is in the region of 10%. International comparative data, also available from the PISA survey, indicate that this proportion is low by comparison with most OECD countries.