Students from wealthier families get better results

Students from wealthier backgrounds in Ireland are much more likely to perform better in school, according to an OECD report published yesterday.

The study shows a strong link between the ability of students and the socio-economic position of their parents, although this connection is more pronounced in Britain and Germany.

In Ireland, for example, students on the bottom quarter of an index reflecting their parents' occupational status recorded significantly lower scores in tests for reading, maths and science.

Ireland's results were similar to the OECD average, while in Germany the gap in achievement based on income was one of the most acute in Europe.

The higher proportion of lower-paid immigrants living in some industrialised countries - and the implied difficulties with, among other things, language - has been suggested as one reason behind the lower scores among less well-off students.

The report also shows that the quality of secondary school infrastructure in Ireland is above the average for OECD countries.

The findings were based on school principals' responses to questions on the condition of school buildings, such as heating and lighting systems.

There was no discernible difference in the achievements of students in schools with better infrastructure, suggesting a weak link between the quality of school buildings and student performance.

However, the report suggested that educational resources, such as computers, library materials and science laboratory equipment, were poor in Ireland.

Based again on school principals' responses, Ireland ranks below the OECD average for this, as does Britain.

The average class size in Ireland, 24.1 students, is close to the OECD average of 24.6, the report shows.

Students in the larger classes outperformed their counterparts in smaller classes in reading skills, the report shows.

However, it suggests this may reflect that weaker students may be in smaller remedial classes.

Many countries whose students had a similar performance in reading skills to Ireland also had similar class sizes, such as Britain (24.9).

However, a few who performed just as well had considerably larger average class sizes, including Korea (37.6), Japan (38.8) and Hong Kong (38.0).

Based on reports provided by school principals, Irish schools felt more autonomous than schools in many OECD and non-OECD countries on issues such as appointing teachers and formulating budgets.

However, Irish schools were well below the OECD average in terms of their perceived autonomy in relation to determining teachers' salary increases.