Primary school children living in a lone-parent household or a household where no parent is employed have significantly lower reading skills, according to a report published today.
The report, carried out in 2004 among first- and fifth-class children in 150 schools, showed on average that pupils in designated disadvantaged schools achieved lower scores than pupils in non-designated schools.
It found that children from the Traveller community achieve lower average scores than pupils from the settled community.
The study, entitled Succeeding in Reading? Reading standards in Irish primary schools, also found that pupils whose parents imposed rules about the amount of time they spend watching TV or playing computer games have higher average scores than those who don't.
"Plenty of books in the home, regularly reading to pre-school children and having high expectations for a child's education were all associated with higher scores on the reading test," Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said at the publication of the report.
"It also states that a home needs more than increased wealth - it needs to be literacy rich - to develop reading," Ms Hanafin added.
However, the study also revealed that less than half of inspectors believe that teachers have a comprehensive knowledge of methods for teaching English, while more than 33 per cent believe that teachers have a somewhat or very limited understanding of the English curriculum.