Almost one-third of students who enrolled in public sector schools last year had reading ages of two or more years below their chronological ages, according to a recent survey on remedial education undertaken by the TUI.
The survey of 160 schools, a quarter of which are in the community and comprehensive sector while the remainder are VEC schools, shows that just over a quarter (27 per cent) of girls and one-third of boys transferring to second level are in need of remedial support.
The report highlights the dire state of remedial provision in many schools. Despite the recent huge increases in resources to tackle educational disadvantage, less than half of the remedial teachers who responded to the survey reported an increase in the provision of remedial education over the last five years.
Over one-third of teachers have experienced no change and 16 per cent of public sector schools have in fact suffered a decrease in provision over the last five years.
More than half of all respondents say the remedial teaching in their schools is not carried out under Department guidelines, which stipulate that remedial teachers should devote between 12 and 15 hours a week to remedial education and a further three hours to related activities.
The report shows that one in five remedial teachers does not have a special room for remedial work. Over one-fifth of teachers who do have a special room say it is unsuitable and half say the room is used by other teachers.
Over a quarter of the remedial teachers say there are trained remedial teachers in their schools who no longer teach in the remedial area. One school reports as many as seven such teachers on its staff who have opted out for a variety of reasons. These included stress, frustration, high workloads and lack of interest by management. Some teachers, however, have moved for promotional reasons.
Almost two-thirds of the teachers surveyed say the psychological services are inadequate. One in three respondents says that computers are unavailable to the remedial students in their schools.
Only one-third of remedial teachers engage in support teaching - assisting remedial students in non-streamed classes in the company of the regular subject teacher. However, almost all of these (98 per cent) find the process successful and the vast majority of remedial teachers would prefer to adopt this strategy, the report shows.
"A lot of money is being spent on educational disadvantage, but there is no improvement in the situation," comments the TUI's education officer, Mr Billy Fitzpatrick. "The real issues are not being addressed. It's clear that remedial education needs an overhaul from top to bottom."