Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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1316. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the national literacy strategy for children and young people with school level targets. [33687/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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In 2011 the national strategy on "Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life" - for the period 2011 to 2020 was launched. The Department undertook to create a culture of continuous improvement in schools by improving radically the assessment and reporting of progress at student, school and national level and by focussing school self-evaluation and inspection on literacy and numeracy.

The Strategy contained a number of school level targets, it set a target of improving the performance of primary children in the National Assessment of Mathematics and English Reading. The most recent assessment, carried out in 2009 and published in 2010 was a baseline assessment. The 2014 assessment was carried out this year and its publication in due course will indicate to what extent the ambitious targets in the Strategy have been met.

At post-primary level, there are targets in the Strategy relating to PISA: in literacy and numeracy, the target was to increase by 5 percentage points the students performing at level 4 and above and halve the percentage of students performing at or below level 1 by 2020. 2012 PISA results show that in print reading 37.4% of Irish students performed at level 4 or above (28.9% in 2009) and 9.7% of students performed at or below level 1 (17.2% in 2009). In mathematics in 2012, 31% of Irish students performed at level 4 or above (26.1% in 2009) and 16.9% of students performed at level 1 or below (20.9% in 2009). The targets at level 4 have been achieved but we cannot be complacent, if we are to achieve world class results. However, there is more work to be done for students at level 1.

There are also targets in mathematics; the target, by 2020, was to increase uptake of higher level mathematics at junior certificate to 60% and leaving certificate mathematics to 30%. In the State Examinations, uptake at higher level has again increased this year to 54% in Junior Certificate and 27% in Leaving Certificate.

In view of the encouraging figures above, it is anticipated that the targets set out in the Strategy will be met by 2020.

In addition, school self-evaluation has been rolled out to all schools as a tool for schools to review and improve their own performance. In the initial years of implementation, schools have been asked to focus on literacy and numeracy.