City students face remedial crisis

EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT: Almost half of all pupils tested in Dublin's north-east inner-city primary schools require remedial teaching.

One quarter of 749 pupils - from first to sixth class - tested for reading ability were in the last 10th percentile, while one third of the pupils were in the last 10th percentile for maths. Pupils in this percentile require remediation. In all, 321 pupils from the eight schools were found to require remediation in English, maths or both.

When observed behaviour was assessed, 371 of 1,302 pupils were in the clinical range, a cause for concern. Further testing found 163 of these had serious emotional and behavioural problems. There are four support teachers, in the eight schools, working with 15 children each, so 103 children have needs that are not being met.

School principals Seamus Boyle and Pat Courtney say that, three years ago, when the Government- established Integrated Services Initiative was introduced, it seemed there was hope. The screening was carried out, needs identified, a report produced and duly filed.

The ISP came to an end and Courtney says: "In my view, it has been forgotten and lost. It is being replaced by RAPID, but the Department of Education has not yet appointed people to the implementation schemes."

Boyle says that "if only one of these pupils ends up in Mountjoy, people will say we conducted the research, we knew the problems, why didn't we act? It behoves others to act now so that we can intervene." The statistics have been brought to the attention of local politicians and the Department of Education.

"The Department says every school has access to remediation. Every qualified child does not have access," he says.

Boyle says many pupils leave school functionally illiterate and innumerate. "The north inner city is a very depressed and educationally deprived place. Parents want the best for their children, but they have very low expectations."

Recent statistics show 54.4 per cent participation in third level in Dublin 3, 19.5 per cent in Dublin 2 and 8.9 per cent in Dublin 1.

Boyle, principal of O'Connell's Boys Primary School, says: "Last week, a mother with three children in this school, and with three grandchildren, said to me: 'yours go to college, mine go to Holles Street'."