The educational system should be reformed to provide more flexible, vocational and longer-duration school courses, particularly for slower learners, a new ESRI report has said.
Trading Qualifications for Jobs says there should be "more "bridges" and mutually credited progression routes between vocational education/training and general education". Ireland has "extremely weak provision" in this respect.
"The system is extraordinarily rigid compared with mainland Europe, England and Scotland. Here you get one chance and if you fail you are in trouble, particularly if you fail before Leaving Certificate - there is almost no way back," said Prof Damian Hannan, one of the authors, yesterday. "There are almost no possibilities of continuing education for young people who leave school at 15 or 16."
The report says less attention should be paid to curricular and exam reforms in trying to reduce school failure rates. Rather it should be paid to allowing more flexible subject combinations and more time to complete subjects at Junior and Leaving Certificate level. It warns that using different curricular and exam systems, like the Leaving Certificate applied for less academic students, is "not a strong selling point" for employers.
It also recommends a large expansion of the Post Leaving Certificate sector, and a complementary rationalisation of overlapping third-level certificate and diploma courses. Prof Hannan said that in parts of the west and midlands there were almost no PLC courses, except in some clerical subjects.
In the light of the extremely restricted nature of part-time and continuing education and training, plus the limited amount of infirm training compared to other OECD countries, it argues for movement towards centralising all education and training provision, and general and vocational curricula and examinations, in a unified structure. It suggests Ireland could follow the Scottish example.
The report is also critical of how rarely vocationally-orientated courses taken at school are required to gain entry to equivalent courses at third level. This "introduces an over-academic bias in Irish selection mechanisms. A correction of this would not only increase the overall effectiveness of the system, but would help to reduce the serious class inequalities present."
It wants engineering, technology and other vocational subjects taken at school to be made required subjects for entry to apprenticeships and third-level courses in those subjects.
"Being beaten for a relevant apprenticeship, third-level course or job by somebody who has slightly more `points' than oneself, though in non-relevant general educational courses, is not designed to increase learning motivation for those taking such vocational/technical courses," says the report.
A significant proportion of those taking up apprenticeships or training courses in woodwork and engineering have not done those subjects at school. Prof Hannan conceded that the situation may have improved since the 1985-92 research period covered by the report, because of the introduction of more foundation courses at Junior Certificate level.
The report also stresses the need to expand pre-school and early school programmes for deprived children to reduce failure levels. "If the literacy and numeracy levels and general confidence about learning can be significantly improved amongst the bottom 10 per cent of achievers leaving our primary school system, there should be a corresponding improvement in junior cycle performance."