Creative Teaching and Learning

What Lies Beneath Ireland’s Striking Success In Reading Literacy?

Research recently published by the National Foundation for Educational Research suggests that good links with the community, a stable policy environment and greater autonomy for schools, contribute towards Republic of Ireland pupils achieving higher reading scores than their counterparts in the UK and other English speaking countries. Juliet Sizmur, provides further reflections on the study.

A review of trends in reading performance in PISA shows that, historically, pupils in the Republic of Ireland have demonstrated stronger levels of reading literacy than pupils in the UK.

NFER researchers examined education policy development in the four UK nations and in the Republic of Ireland to explore what may be underpinning these trends. We surveyed experts in each country and then interviewed policymakers and educationalists, from the Department of Education, Educational Research Centre and Inspectorate in the Republic of Ireland, to gain insights into what makes key policies successful.

The Republic of Ireland has fewer pupils in the lowest band for reading than UK countries

As well as achieving higher reading scores in PISA, the Republic of Ireland has consistently had fewer low-achieving pupils compared with UK countries. In 2018, only 12% of pupils in the Republic of Ireland were working below the level of ‘basic literacy’, while the percentages across the UK ranged from 16 to 22%. Both the Republic of Ireland and England had high proportions of pupils working at the most advanced reading levels, but the gap in attainment between the highest and lowest-achieving pupils, often used as an indicator of equity within education systems, was narrowest in the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, and wider in England and Northern Ireland, with Wales between the two extremes.

Comparing policy development across the five countries, suggests that these results may reflect the Republic of Ireland’s long history and sustained focus on combatting educational disadvantage. In fact, Ireland was one of the first countries in Europe to respond to the problem of disadvantage by setting up a pre-school in an acutely disadvantaged area in Dublin in 1969, and schemes to provide food, school books, clothing and footwear to children in need were in existence long before that.

UK policy initiatives and key themes

To enable us to distinguish the differences between the Republic of Ireland’s approach to literacy and that of the UK countries, let us first look at what the experts felt were important policies and programmes in the UK countries, before turning to the Republic of Ireland.

<--- The article continues for users subscribed and signed in. --->

Enjoy unlimited digital access to Teaching Times.
Subscribe for £7 per month to read this and any other article
  • Single user
  • Access to all topics
  • Access to all knowledge banks
  • Access to all articles and blogs
Subscribe for the year for £70 and get 2 months free
  • Single user
  • Access to all topics
  • Access to all knowledge banks
  • Access to all articles and blogs