Four-year-old children who get pre-school education develop more social skills than their peers in primary schools, according to a study of early education in Ireland. However, the report, "A Window on Early Education in Ireland", by the Dublin Institute of Technology, shows that children in primary schools have better pre-academic skills than those in pre-school.
The study also revealed a huge difference in the pupil-teacher ratio between schools and pre-schools, the latter having smaller groups and, frequently, a second adult dealing with each group. There the ratio of adults to children is between 1:6 and 1:8, while in the infants' class in primary schools it is 1:25.
However, teachers in pre-schools are less likely to be qualified than primary teachers, who must all have three years' full-time training. In pre-schools, only 61 per cent of teachers in disadvantaged areas completed a formal training programme, but this drops to 35 per cent in areas which are not disadvantaged.
The State provides pre-school services in certain disadvantaged areas, but elsewhere most such services come from the private sector.
Seventeen per cent of mothers in the disadvantaged areas were never married, compared with only 4 per cent in the non-disadvantaged areas, but the study found that this was not a factor in the level of the children's development. What was significant here was the mother's level of education.
The study was carried out by the Early Childhood Research Centre in the DIT and the report, by Ms Noirin Hayes, Ms Julie O'Flaherty and Ms Margaret Kernan, was presented to the Minister for Education, Mr Martin, yesterday.
It will be discussed in the context of a growing debate on childcare provision in Ireland and a number of developments in early education in recent years.
In 1994 the Department of Education launched the Early Start initiative for three- to four-year-olds living in designated disadvantaged areas. It was intended to combat the risk of later school failure by giving these children a head start in the education system.
At the same time the Department of Health convened a working group to develop pre-school regulations for this area, which up to now has been unregulated, and which includes a large number of private nurseries and pre-school facilities.
The Department of Equality and Law Reform (which has now been combined with Justice) has called together an expert working group on childcare and early education, as part of the commitments in Partnership 2000. The group had its first meeting in July this year.
The DIT study will return to the same children when they are seven and measure the impact of the different educational services they have received.