Leaving school early is bad for health and wealth

LEAVING school early is bad for your health and prospects for future wealth, a senior ESRI researcher told a conference yesterday.

She said a Leaving Certificate qualification had become the minimum necessary for access to education and employment.

But early school leaving also had striking effects on other aspects of people’s lives, said Dr Emer Smyth from the Economic and Social Research Institute.

For instance, early school leavers also had:

Higher rates of anxiety and depression.
Higher rates of smoking and heavy drinking.
Greater dependency on medical cards.
Higher rates of lone motherhood.
Much higher rates of imprisonment.
She told the National Association of Principals and Deputies at their annual conference in Galway that the committal rate in prison for early school leavers was 46.6 per 1,000 compared to 1.6 for those with the Leaving Certificate or higher.

Early school leavers were more likely to work in less skilled jobs. They also received lower average pay than their better educated counterparts.

Dr Smyth said that principals in designated disadvantaged schools were positive about the School Completion Programmes in operation but schools did not exist in isolation and there was a need for joined-up policy across education, health and welfare services.

She feared the McCarthy proposals for cuts in educational spending would have a greater impact on disadvantaged groups than others.

Meanwhile, in his presidential address Ciaran McCormack said the ban on filling promotion positions was having a disproportionate effect on schools compared to other areas of the public service.

Mr McCormack urged Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe to make a strong case for a derogation from the moratorium on promotional posts for the education sector.

“Our students are not piles of paper or files that can be dealt with days or weeks later. The issues that arise have to be addressed now.”

The president pointed out that 200 principals and deputies retired from second level schools this year. “We now have over 200 new leaders, many who were appointed to a different school, taking on their new role with a drastically reduced school management team,” he said.

- John Walshe Education Editor

Irish Independent