SDG 4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex is published by the Educational Research Centre.
The SDG indicators metadata repository provides the following definition in the SDG 4.1.1 metadata document:
Percentage of children and young people achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics during primary education (grade 2 or 3), at the end of primary education, and at the end of lower secondary education. The minimum proficiency level will be measured relative to new common reading and mathematics scales currently in development.
Two primary school assessments are covered in this section:
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
The Educational Research Centre (ERC) has been involved in implementing and reporting on National Assessments of Mathematics and English Reading (NAMER) since 1972 on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills.
The NAMER aims to provide a snapshot of the mathematical and reading skills of second and sixth class pupils in Ireland, to identify areas of strength and weakness, and to inform educational policy and practice.
The 2021 NAMER were administered to representative samples of over 10,000 pupils in second and sixth classes in 188 primary schools during the first two weeks of May 2021.
The full performance report is the NAMER 2021 - National Assessments of Mathematics and English Reading 2021.
This section presents second class pupils’ English reading performance in NAMER 2021, and compares boys’ and girls’ performance. First, pupil achievement is considered in terms of percent correct and scale scores on the overall reading scale, as well as by content area and process skill. Then, achievement is outlined with reference to proficiency levels.
In 2021, the percentage of girls achieving at or below proficiency level 1 was 20.3%, which is statistically significantly lower than the percentage of boys achieving at the lower levels (28.3%).
At level 2, the percentages of girls and boys were 32.5% and 30.5%, respectively.
The percentage of girls achieving at or above level 3 (47.2%) was higher than the corresponding percentage of boys (41.2%), although this difference is not statistically significant.
Of pupils who selected 'Other' as their gender, 28% achieved at or below level 1, 20.6% achieved at level 2, and 51.4% achieved at or above level 3. See Table 4.1.
In NAMER 2021, the proportion of second class boys performing at or below level 1 (28.3%) on the overall English reading scale was almost five percentage points higher than the corresponding value in 2014 (23.4%). The proportion of girls performing at or below level 1 also increased, albeit very slightly, from 20% in 2014 to 20.3% in 2021. The proportion of boys performing at the lowest proficiency levels in 2021 (at or below level 1) was eight percentage points higher than the proportion of girls performing at the lowest levels.
There was a decrease in the proportion of boys performing at level 2, from NAMER 2014 (33.8%) to NAMER 2021 (30.5%). The proportion of girls performing at level 2 increased by 0.6 percentage points, from 31.9% in 2014 to 32.5% in 2021.
At the upper proficiency levels, 41.2% of boys in NAMER 2021 performed at or above level 3, the corresponding value from NAMER 2014 is 42.9%. A similarly small gap was observed for higher-achieving girls across cycles - 47.2% of girls in 2021 performed at or above level 3, while 48.1% of their NAMER 2014 counterparts performed at the same levels. See Table 4.2.
This section presents sixth class pupils’ mathematics performance in NAMER 2021, and compares boys’ and girls’ performance. First, pupil achievement is considered in terms of percent correct and scale scores on the overall mathematics scale, as well as by content area and process skill. Then, achievement is outlined with reference to proficiency levels.
Table 4.3 displays the percentages of pupils achieving at each proficiency level for all gender groups. Six percent of boys and 6.3% of girls achieved below level 1 on the assessment. For the group that indicated their gender as ‘Other’, the corresponding figure was 5.5%.
At the opposite end of the scale, 15.6% of boys reached the highest level (level 4), while 12.8% of girls achieved at this level. Almost 10% of pupils in the ‘Other’ category achieved at level 4.
There is a statistically significant difference between boys and girls performing at level 1, where the proportion of girls (24.9%) is significantly higher than the proportion of boys (17.1%).
At each of the other proficiency levels, there are no statistically significant gender differences. When the proficiency levels are collapsed into categories (At or below level 1, At or above level 3), the percentage of girls performing at the lower levels (at or below level 1) was 31.2% and this is statistically significantly higher than the proportion of boys at 23.1%. At the higher levels, 45.2% of boys achieved at or above level 3, which is statistically significantly higher than the corresponding figure for girls at 37.9%. See Table 4.3.
In NAMER 2021, the percentage of boys (15.6%) and girls (12.8%) performing at the highest level (level 4) was lower than in 2014, when 17% of boys and 13.2% of girls achieved at this level.
At level 3, the second highest level of performance, there was a small increase in the proportion of boys performing at this level between 2014 (26.6%) and 2021 (29.6%). There was a corresponding decrease in the proportion of girls achieving level 3, with 32% achieving level 3 in 2014 and 30.9% in 2021.
The proportion of boys performing below level 1 was 6.7% in 2014 and dropped slightly to 6.0% in 2021. The proportion of girls performing below level 1 increased from 4.6% in 2014 to 6.3% in 2021. There was a small decrease in the proportion of boys performing at level 1 in 2021 (17.1%), when compared with 2014 (19.1%). The trend was different for girls performing at level 1, with the proportion increasing slightly from 22.5% in 2014 to 24.9% in 2021.
At level 2, the proportion of boys achieving this level increased by one percentage point from 30.7% in 2014 to 31.7% in 2021. The proportion of girls at level 2 dropped slightly from 32% in 2014 to 30.9% in 2021. However, none of these differences between 2014 and 2021 are statistically significant. See Table 4.4.
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The study is managed on behalf of the Department of Education by the Educational Research Centre (ERC). PIRLS is designed to assess the reading achievement of fourth class pupils (or the equivalent grade level internationally) and to support the measurement of trends, enabling each country to track their own performance over time, as well as facilitating comparisons with 56 other countries.
The full performance report is the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021 report (PIRLS).
Table 4.5 shows the cumulative percentages of pupils that met or exceeded each of the four International benchmarks, in Ireland, in selected countries of interest, and across all PIRLS countries.
Almost all pupils in Ireland (98%), and in most of the reference countries, reached the threshold for the low benchmark. A large majority of pupils in Ireland (91%) also demonstrated the skills and strategies needed to reach the intermediate benchmark, and this was the case for at least four-fifths of pupils in most reference countries (New Zealand being an exception).
There was more variation at the high benchmark, which was reached by over two-thirds of pupils in Ireland (67%), a large percentage in comparison to many of the selected countries.
Just over a quarter of pupils in Ireland (27%) demonstrated the critical skills necessary to reach the advanced benchmark, again among the highest percentages reported by countries. See Table 4.5.
The percentages of boys and girls reaching each international benchmark across the last three cycles of PIRLS in Ireland are shown in Table 4.6.
The vast majority of both boys and girls reached the low benchmark consistently across all cycles and no significant gender differences were found at this level. In fact, gender differences are at their smallest in 2021 for the low, intermediate, and high benchmarks, with the gender difference at the high benchmark decreasing from 8% to 5%.
This trend is not seen at the advanced benchmark, where the difference between genders increased marginally across each cycle, with 4% more girls reaching this level in 2011 than boys, 5% more in 2016, and 6% more girls attaining this benchmark in 2021.
Overall, the performance of both boys and girls at the international benchmarks has increased with each PIRLS cycle, and gender gaps appear to be reducing at most benchmarks, although girls retain a significant advantage at the highest ones. See Table 4.6.
The Educational Research Centre published the report Education in a Dynamic World: the performance of students in Ireland in PISA 2022 in December 2023.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an assessment of the skills and knowledge of 15-year-olds in science, reading literacy and mathematics. It is an initiative of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). PISA takes place every three years.
In 2022, Ireland’s mean score on the overall mathematics scale is 491.6 and this is significantly higher than the OECD average of 472.4. Applying a 95% confidence interval, which takes account of measurement and sampling error, Ireland’s mean mathematics score falls between 487.7 and 495.6. Ireland's reported mean, 491.6, is the midpoint in this range. When this range is considered, Ireland’s mean mathematics performance is placed between 5th and 18th among OECD countries, and between 9th and 22nd among all 81 participating countries/economies. See Table 4.7.
Gender differences in achievement can also be reviewed across cycles with reference to proficiency levels. Table 4.8 describes the percentages of males and females below level 2, and at or above level 5 in Ireland across three PISA cycles: 2012, 2018 and 2022. The proportion of male students in Ireland performing below level 2 was relatively stable between the 2012 cycle (15.2%) and the 2018 cycle (15.7%), with an increase of just 0.5 percentage points in this category. This percentage increased in 2022, however, to 18.5%, though it should be noted that this increase (relative to both the 2012 and 2018 cycles) is not statistically significant.
For female students, there was a decrease in the percentage of female students performing below level 2 between 2012 (18.7%) and 2018 (15.7%). However, this pattern did not continue as 2022 saw an increase in this category to 19.6% of female students performing below level 2.
When comparing the difference between the 2022 and 2012 cycles, the difference is not statistically significant. However, the 3.9 percentage point difference between the 2022 and 2018 cycles is significant.
Looking at male students performing at or above level 5 across cycles, we see that the proportion of males in Ireland at this level decreased between 2012 (when it was 12.7%) to 2018 (9.9%), but remained relatively stable between 2018 and 2022 (when it reached 9.6%). When comparing the 2022 percentages with those of the 2012 cycle, the difference is statistically significant, while the small change between 2018 and 2022 is not significant.
A decrease in the percentage of females performing at or above level 5 in mathematics is also evident between the 2012 and 2018 cycles (8.5% and 6.6%, respectively), and a further decrease is evident in the 2022 cycle where 4.7% of female students now perform at this level. The 3.8 percentage point difference between the 2022 cycle and the 2012 cycle is statistically significant, while the difference between 2018 and 2022 is not. See Table 4.8.
This section examines the mean reading literacy performance of students in Ireland in PISA 2022, firstly in relation to all countries/economies that participated. Subsequently, the performance of students in Ireland is analysed across recent PISA cycles and compared to trends across OECD countries on average.
Ireland’s mean reading literacy score is 516.0, which exceeds the OECD average by 40 points. One country, Singapore, achieved a significantly higher mean reading score than Ireland and four economies (Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, and Estonia) obtained mean scores that do not differ significantly from Ireland’s. Seventy-five countries and economies had mean scores that are significantly lower than Ireland’s. The mean reading score for Northern Ireland is 485.2 (SE=3.4, SD=100.2). This is not significantly different from the mean score for Ireland, or the OECD average (OECD 2023c, Table I.B2.2). When measurement and sampling error are taken into account, it is possible to state with 95% confidence that Ireland’s score falls within the range of 511.4 to 520.6.
Based on this score range, Ireland’s mean reading performance places between 2nd and 9th among all countries/economies participating in PISA 2022, and between 1st and 6th among OECD countries.
Ireland’s standard deviation for reading is 88.2, while the OECD average standard deviation is 100.5. This indicates that the spread of reading achievement is narrower in Ireland than on average across OECD countries. See Table 4.9.
Gender differences in achievement can also be reviewed across cycles with reference to proficiency levels. Table 4.10 describes the percentages of males and females below level 2, and at or above level 5 in Ireland in reading across three PISA cycles: 2015, 2018 and 2022.
The proportion of male students in Ireland performing below level 2 in reading was relatively stable between the 2015 and 2022 cycles (12.3% and 14.5% respectively) with an increase of a nonsignificant 2.2 percentage points in this category.
Similarly, for female students there was relative stability, with non-significant changes from 8.0% in 2015, to 8.5% in 2018, and to 8.2% in 2022.
On the other end of the performance distribution, the percentage of male students performing at or above level 5 in reading again remained relatively stable between 2015, 2018 and 2022 (10.7%, 10.3% and 9.4% respectively), all differences were non-significant.
However, the percentage of female students performing at or above level 5 increased between 2015 and 2018 (from 10.7% to 13.8%) before decreasing in 2022 to 11.2%. The decrease of 2.6% between 2018 and 2022 is significant. See Table 4.10.
SDG 4.1.2 Completion rate (primary education, lower secondary education, upper secondary education) is published by the Department of Education.
The SDG indicators metadata repository provides the following definition in the SDG 4.1.2 metadata document:
Percentage of a cohort of children or young people aged 3-5 years above the intended age for the last grade of each level of education who have completed that grade.
Table 4.11 shows that there were 553,319 mainstream primary pupils in 2019.
There were only 205 leavers from mainstream classes in primary schools (excluding emigrants) who did not go to any school within the state. Approximately 57% (116) of leavers were boys, and 43% (89) of leavers were girls. See Table 4.12.
The Department of Education’s report Retention Rates of Pupils in Second-Level Schools Entry Cohort 2016 was published in October 2023.
This report is the 15th publication of the annual retention rates covering the progression of the first-year entry cohort through each academic year. The reports cover 25 years, beginning with the 1991 cohort, building a continuous time series recording the trend of retention rates in post primary schools. The retention rates to the Leaving Certificate measure the percentage of pupils who entered the first year of post-primary schools in 2016 and who completed the Leaving Certificate examination in 2021 or 2022. Alternatively, an accredited grade option was also available in 2021 from the State Examinations Commission (SEC).
The progression of the 2016 cohort through the education system is presented in Table 4.13 and Table 4.14.
Of the adjusted (63,910) starting cohort, 62,374 sat their Junior Certificate or received a Junior Cycle Certificate of Completion (JCCC), a loss of 1,536 pupils giving a retention rate to the Junior Certificate of 97.6%. Between the Junior Certificate examination and the start of the Senior Cycle, 1,338 pupils did not return to school, giving a retention rate of 95.5% for fifth year, the same as last year’s cohort. Between fifth and sixth year, an additional 1,798 pupils did not return. The retention rate to the Leaving Certificate was 91.7%, with the gender gap between males and females decreasing to 3.2 percentage points. See Table 4.13.
Of the 59,238 pupils who did enter sixth year, a further 652 did not complete their Leaving Certificate in either 2021 or 2022. When examined by gender, 2,098 female and 3,226 male students did not sit for their Leaving Certificate. The highest number of early school leavers occurred between Senior Cycle years 1 and 2 (fifth year and sixth year) for both genders, with losses of 794 girls and 1,004 boys. For females, 13 more students returned to complete the Leaving Certificate than were enrolled in sixth year in state-aided schools, as some students complete their education with non-aided providers. See Table 4.14.
Table 4.15 presents the national retention rate over time. The retention rate grew rapidly between the 2002 and 2005 cohorts, with an increase of 4.7 percentage points. Since then, retention rates have stabilised over the past 11 years, decreasing 0.4 percentage points from an all-time high of 92.1% retention rate for the 2015 cohort. See Table 4.15 and Figure 4.1.
Cohort (Year) | |
2001 | 84.7 |
2002 | 84.8 |
2003 | 85.7 |
2004 | 87.7 |
2005 | 89.5 |
2006 | 90.2 |
2007 | 90.1 |
2008 | 90.6 |
2009 | 90.2 |
2010 | 91.2 |
2011 | 91.6 |
2012 | 91.5 |
2013 | 91.2 |
2014 | 91.5 |
2015 | 92.1 |
2016 | 91.7 |
SDG 4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 24–59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex shows data from the second in a series of key findings from the second round of interviews with the Infant Cohort in Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) Study.
The SDG indicators metadata repository provides the following definition in the SDG 4.2.1 metadata document:
The proportion of children aged 24 to 59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being.
There is not yet a globally-accepted definition of ‘developmentally on track’. The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey’s Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI) presently defines ‘on track’ as the percentage of children aged 36-59 months who are developmentally on-track in at least three of the following four domains: literacy-numeracy, physical, socio-emotional and learning. Other measures use different definitions, with varying empirically- and conceptually-driven perspectives on how best to define ‘on track’. Methodological work is ongoing to define commonly agreed terms and methods for more comprehensively assessing each of the domains of early childhood development (i.e. health, learning and psychosocial well-being).
SDG 4.2.1 proxy data presents some key findings from the second round of interviews with the Infant Cohort in the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) Study. The families of 11,100 children were initially interviewed in 2008/2009 when the study child was nine months old. They were re-interviewed between January and August 2011, when the children were three years old. A sample of the information available in the GUI reports is presented under SDG 4.2.1 in the 2019 report. For further information please find a breakdown in the GUI Research Reports.
SDG 4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age), by sex is published by Pobal on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).
The SDG indicators metadata repository provides the following definition in the SDG 4.2.2 metadata document:
The participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age), by sex is defined as the percentage of children in the given age range who participate in one or more organized learning programme, including programmes which offer a combination of education and care. Participation in early childhood and in primary education are both included. The age range will vary by country depending on the official age of entry to primary education.
The new Early Learning and Childcare Data website replaces the ‘Annual Early Years Sector Profile Report’ with an easy to use, accessible and innovative dashboard. The data is provided through dashboards developed by Pobal on behalf of DCEDIY.
Data from the Annual Early Years Sector Profile surveys in 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 is shown in Table 4.16. Over 91% of 3 to 4 year olds were enrolled in the early years sector in 2022/23, up from 83.5% two years previously. The percentage of non-school going 4 to 5 year olds enrolled in the early years sector also increased over this two year period, from 73.6% to 78%, respectively. See Table 4.16.
The number of 5 year old primary pupils in all first level school programmes was 63,891 in 2021-2022 and 63,617 in 2022-2023. To put this in context, there were 64,026 children aged 5 years in Census 2022. See Table 4.17.
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