Educational Disadvantages Analysis

There are a number of factors that contributed to educational disadvantages including inclusive provision and social exclusion. The home setting of a child contributed to educational disadvantage together with the family’s income because over the last number of years, due to the recession, many parents lost their jobs which resulted in very little or, in some cases, no family income coming into the home. Every child in Ireland should be entitled to attend primary school free of charge. However there are a number of hidden charges such as the cost of uniforms, books and schools. A report carried out by Barnardos showed that the average cost of a child in primary school education is €225.60 a year and that did not include the replacement of uniforms,
4% of students left school before Junior Cert. 18.4% of students left school before Leaving Cert. Up to 80% of children from Traveller families did not advance to second-level education. This will no doubt cause high levels of literacy problems for adults in their later life. The most recent study from the Education Research Centre’s report entitled “Reading Literacy in Disadvantaged Primary Schools”, published in November 2004 found that 30% of primary school children in poorer areas suffered severe literacy difficulties. A Department of Education report on educational disadvantage showed that while the greatest percentage of disadvantage children were to be found in rural areas, the greatest concentration was in parts of our cities particularly Dublin. (Labour Party 2004) Poverty and social exclusion was one of the many contributing factors in educational disadvantage. Children experiencing poverty and social exclusion, including Travellers and foreign nationals, often did not achieve their educational potential and this may reduce their chance of success in life and continue the cycle of disadvantage (CMRS INTO
The DEIS action plan focused on addressing the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities and from pre-school through second-level education. The latest DEIS reports showed that although children in these schools performed below average, their performances in reading and maths were improving with the greatest gains made in younger classes. It is worrying that one in five 6th class pupils in DEIS primary schools continued to have low levels of reading which was more than double the normal average (DEIS, 2013). The Home, School, Community Liaison Scheme, (HSCL) was established in the autumn of 1990.The underlying policy of the scheme was one that sought to promote partnership between parents and teachers. The purpose of this partnership was to enhance pupil’s learning opportunities and to promote their retention in the education system. In addition, the HSCL Scheme placed a major emphasis on collaboration with the local community. The HSCL Scheme was the pioneer in involving the school in the life of the community and involving the community and its agencies in the life of the