Targeted intitiatives can reduce poverty & exclusion
Issued : Tuesday 15 May, 2007
The Fair Deal proposals that we are launching today are a radical and defining view on the need to use our prosperity to overcome poverty and exclusion.
Ireland is in a unique position. The radical reforms of our education system in the 1960s helped to produce a new generation of Irish people, educated to extremely high international standards. In turn, that educated and skilled workforce produced the dynamic economy that we benefit from today.
But within that system some young people are still being left behind. There are 65,000 children in this country living in consistent poverty. At a time of such prosperity this is simply unacceptable.
Educational disadvantage exists in every corner of modern Ireland. Regrettably in the midst of this prosperity, it remains a fact that a child's family background and economic resources still has a major influence over how well they will perform in school and their access to educational opportunities.
Therefore as part of our Fair Deal for disadvantaged communities the Labour Party is proposing a number of new targeted initiatives in the areas of pre-school education, addressing literacy and numeracy levels, and early school leaving that will help the education of young people from some of the less well-off parts of the country:
- In an effort to eliminate inter-generational educational disadvantage, Labour in government will seek to introduce a year's free pre-school education for all 3 year olds before they begin primary schooling.
- With 40% of primary students from disadvantaged areas having poor reading skills and 60% having difficulty with maths, Labour will provide extra training for teachers in teaching in numeracy and literacy and extend hours for teaching these skills.
- To address pre-Leaving Cert dropout that remains stubbornly at 18% we will adequately resource the National Education Welfare Board and develop a social guarantee so that all 16-18 year olds are offered a meaningful and appropriate education or training.
Together these initiatives will address many of the factors that led young people either to lose interest in their education from an early age, or to opt out of the education system altogether.
We want to ensure that as many young people as possible remain in full-time education for as long as possible and not simply believe that because they do not come from a well-off or privileged background, that they will not be able to achieve their full educational potential.
