Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 634: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the rates of student absenteeism and early school leaving here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7015/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's second report on school retention published in October 2005 is based on a detailed analysis of the records held in the post-primary pupils database for the cohort of entrants to the first year of the junior cycle in each of the years 1995 and 1996.

It must be noted that the figures refer to retention in State aided second level schools only. They do not take account of important educational pathways outside this system, such as Youthreach and apprenticeship training or of students in private non-aided colleges at second level. The report shows the national retention rate to completion of the junior certificate examination is 94.6% and the national adjusted retention rate to completion of the leaving certificate examination is 81.3%.

With regard to those who leave school without completing the leaving certificate, the available statistical evidence indicates the increasing range of further education and training opportunities available for these students is having a positive impact. Central Statistics Office data show the educational profile of 20 to 24 year olds in Ireland has improved steadily over the last five years as increasing opportunities have been made available in the further education and training sector. By 2005, 86.1% of 20 to 24 year olds had attained upper second level education or equivalent, up from 82.4% in 2000. This indicates there has been an increase in the proportion of young people with at least the leaving certificate or equivalent. Indeed, the level of educational attainment of Irish young people is ahead of the EU average on that measure.

This Government has pursued a dual strategy of both encouraging more young people to finish school and ensuring much greater second chance and further education opportunities for those who left school early. This type of strategy ensures that young people are empowered to achieve their full potential, be that by sitting the leaving certificate or by pursuing qualifications through other pathways such as Youthreach or FÁS apprenticeships that may be more appropriate to their individual interests. Thus, it is important that the Deputy appreciate that looking at just the level of retention in the formal school system is not a fair assessment of the educational attainment of our young people.

The Deputy may be aware that up until 2004, Ireland had no national data on the levels of student attendance in our schools. This matter was addressed by the Education (Welfare) Act 2000, which requires all schools to submit a report to the National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, on levels of school attendance. In 2004, the NEWB initiated the collection and analysis of the first set of school attendance data for Ireland relating to the school year 2003-04. Schools were asked to submit the total number of student days lost through absence, the number of students absent for 20 days or more and the number of students expelled.

The returns showed that the problem of absenteeism is greater in areas of social and economic disadvantage and that 10% of all primary school students miss more than 20 days from school each year or 11% of the school year, 19% of all post-primary school students under 16 years of age miss more than 20 days from school each year or 12% of the school year, the average number of days missed by primary pupils is ten days in the school year. In the most disadvantaged urban areas the figure is 17 days per pupil. The average number of days missed by post-primary students is 14 days in the school year. In the most disadvantaged areas, the figure is 21 days per student.

A key focus of the Government's education policy is to prioritise investment in favour of those most at risk and to optimise access, participation and outcomes at every level of the system for disadvantaged groups. The total provision for educational inclusion programmes in 2006 is over €640 million across all levels of education compared to almost €600 million in 2005. This includes additional funding for the implementation of measures under the DEIS action plan at pre-school, primary and second level, additional funding of €7 million for further education programmes and a €20 million increase in provision for third level student support schemes.

The wide variety of measures in place for tackling educational disadvantage and social exclusion range from pre-school interventions, supports for tackling children's literacy problems, reduced pupil-teacher ratios, increased capitation grants, measures to tackle early school leaving and strengthen ties between the school, the family and the community. My Department's strategies on the curriculum have included widening the educational experience available to students, which aim to achieve a greater level of inclusiveness in curricular provision and meet the needs of the diversity of pupils in our second level schools by expanding funding for programmes such as the leaving certificate vocational programme, LCVP, vocational preparation training, VPT, and the leaving certificate applied, LCA.

The school completion programme was implemented to directly target those in danger of dropping out of the education system and is a key component of my Department's strategy to discriminate positively in favour of children and young people at risk of early school leaving. In line with current thinking, it favours an integrated cross-community and cross-sectoral approach based on the development of local strategies to ensure maximum participation levels in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people aged four to 18 years, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes.

The home school community liaison, HSCL, scheme is concerned with maximising active involvement of children in the learning process, in particular those who might be at risk of failure; promoting active co-operation between home, school and relevant community agencies in promoting the educational interests of the children, raising awareness in parents of their own capacities to enhance their children's educational progress and to assist them in developing relevant skills, enhancing the children's uptake from education, their retention in the educational system, their continuation to post-compulsory education and to third level and their attitudes to lifelong learning and disseminating the positive outcomes of the scheme throughout the school system generally.

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 and the establishment of the National Educational Welfare Board is an important plank in the campaign to keep students at school and will provide a comprehensive framework for promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The new action plan for educational inclusion, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools or DEIS, will be introduced on a phased basis starting during the current school year and aims to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people, from pre-school to completion of upper second level education — three to 18 years of age — from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed.

A key element of the new action plan is the putting in place of a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage in our primary and second level schools, which will result in improved targeting of resources at those most in need and a new integrated school support programme, SSP. The SSP will bring together and build upon a number of existing interventions for schools and school clusters-communities with a concentrated level of educational disadvantage.