Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 183: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason Ireland has dropped right down the OECD rankings for education; and the way he will rectify same. [34209/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Irish 15 year old students have participated in two recent international studies of achievement levels in literacy and numeracy. These were the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 which tested students' reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy using traditional pencil-and-paper tests and the OECD PISA 2009 Digital Literacy Assessment which assessed students' ability to read computer-based text.

The OECD PISA 2009 results showed a significant deterioration in the performance of 15 year olds in Ireland in Mathematical Literacy and Reading Literacy vis-a-vis earlier years. Ireland's performance in Mathematical Literacy ranked as just below the OECD average, and Reading Literacy was at the OECD average. In Scientific Literacy, Ireland's score is significantly above the OECD average and is the same mean score as reported in PISA 2006. Independent national and international experts who have examined the data in detail on behalf of the Department have stated that the declines may be explained partly by changes in the profile of students, poorer student engagement with the tests, random factors in school selection, and weaknesses in the methodology used by PISA to determine trends in student performance over time. However, they have also advised the Department that these factors only explain part of the decline in student achievement on the tests and I am acting on the basis that there has been some real decline in standards of student performance.

The OECD PISA 2009 Digital Literacy Assessment showed that Irish students' ability to read computer-based text was significantly above the average of the 19 OECD countries that took the test. The above-average results of Irish students on the digital literacy tests contrasts with their average-level performance in the 2009 round of the traditional pencil-and-paper PISA literacy tests referred to above. These results suggest that the reading standards of Irish 15-year olds may be somewhat better than the results achieved on the traditional pencil-and-paper test in 2009 but not at the above-average levels scored by Irish students in 2000. In view this decline, a key commitment of the Programme for Government was the development and implementation of a national literacy strategy. I published Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life, the National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020, in July. The Strategy addresses six key areas aimed at improving literacy and numeracy outcomes, these are enabling parents and communities to support children's literacy and numeracy development; improving teachers' and early childhood education and care practitioners' professional practice through changes to both pre-service and in-service education; building the capacity of school leadership to lead improvements in the teaching and assessment of literacy and numeracy in schools; getting the content of the curriculum for literacy and numeracy right at primary and post-primary levels by making sure that the curriculum is clear about what we expect students to learn at each stage, targeting available additional resources on learners with additional needs, including students from disadvantaged communities, students learning English as an additional language and students with special educational needs; and improving how teachers, schools and the educational system use good assessment approaches to plan the next steps for each learner and monitors progress.

Each of the actions in the Strategy has a timeline and clear lead responsibility for delivery is assigned. Progress has already been made on implementing the early actions identified in the Strategy and a circular on implementation has just issued to all primary schools.