Improvement In Literacy Scores Welcomed

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn today welcomed a new OECD report which placed Irish students’ ability to read computer based text significantly above the average.

The students in Irish schools ranked 8th out of the 19 countries that participated in the OECD’s Digital Literacy test. Just four countries, Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Japan, had significantly higher scores than Ireland.

The above-average results of Irish students on these digital literacy tests contrasts with their poor performance in the 2009 round of the traditional pencil-and-paper PISA literacy tests.

Welcoming the report, Minister Quinn said: “While it is reassuring to see that Irish students compare very well with their OECD counterparts in this study, there is clearly no room for complacency about reading standards in our schools.

“The results of this digital literacy test and the PISA 2009 tests published last year seem to confirm that a decline has occurred in reading standards in Ireland over the last decade,

“I will be bringing proposals to Government very shortly to ensure that the literacy and numeracy of our students in the future compare with the very best in the world. The proposals include specific improvements to teacher education and curriculum content that will build upon progress to date in the area of digital literacy.”

(BMcN/KMcA)