Overview of Northern Ireland's policy on literacy and education
Early years
After consultation during 2004, in 2005 the Department for Education Northern Ireland (DENI) published the outcomes of the Review of Pre-school Education in Northern Ireland: a fresh start for early years. It aimed to provide more integrated and family friendly services that will be the focus of early years provision. From 2007, DENI will oversee Sure Start and DENI confirmed that reception classes will cease to exist from September 2007. Legislation that prevents schools in NI from offering reception places was announced in DENI's response to the Review.
The Pre-School Education Expansion Programme, which is an important element both of the Department for Education NI's (DENI) strategy for tackling low and under-achievement and of the Government’s Childcare Strategy, is designed as a partnership between the statutory and voluntary/private sectors. It incorporates a number of features designed to promote high quality pre-school provision, including adherence to a common curriculum in all settings, in line with the Curricular Guidance for Pre-School Education published by the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA). For more information, visit www.deni.gov.uk/index/pre-school-education-pg.htm
Schools
NI's general approach to education is fairly similar to that followed by the DCSF in England, the major exception being that it has retained the 11+, with the related grammar school system, for 40% of children; the other 60% go to secondary highs. Following the restoration of devolution in 2007 the Executive and Assembly will seek an agreement on whether post-primary admissions will be selective or non-selective. The selective tests are due to end in autumn 2008 and the Assembly will need to decide on new arrangements to apply to pupils transferring from 2010.
Controversy surrounds the decision because international studies have revealed that 75% of 17-year-olds in NI are still in full-time education or vocational training compared with 60% in England. Studies have also shown that 32% more children from NI working class areas go to university than those from a similar background in England, and 7% more pupils in NI achieve five or more GCSEs than in England.
Most schools are denominational and many are single sex. Publicly funded schools are known as grant-aided schools and they come in five main varieties. Controlled schools, predominantly Protestant, are provided and funded by the education and library boards, while maintained schools, predominantly Catholic, are provided by voluntary bodies and funded by the boards. Around 4% of children are now taught at integrated schools and there is increasing pressure from Government to extend integration. Integrated schools may be controlled or grant-maintained. Finally, there are the voluntary grammar schools, provided by the voluntary bodies such as the main churches, and funded from a variety of public and voluntary sources, including limited fees. NI's national curriculum is divided into the same four key stages as in England, with their related programmes of study, attainment targets and level descriptions, but there are six curriculum areas of study as opposed to England's ten. See the different approaches to educational structure within the UK. NI is divided up into regional Education and Library Boards.
DENI decided not to adopt England's literacy hour approach in the primary sector, concluding that the position of NI schools was different so there were not the same reasons for introducing the highly-structured English teaching regime. Inspectorate evidence was that teaching in English is generally sound and a variety of strategies was used appropriately, including a mix of whole-class teaching, group-work and work with individuals. The School Improvement Programme asked schools to focus on literacy, numeracy and ICT. All secondary schools were required to have literacy co-ordinators from September 1998. In practice, the NI Education and Library Boards have, like their Welsh counterparts, had the freedom to select what they see as the best aspects of the literacy hour and any other promising primary initiatives which are currently being recommended to schools in England.
In 1998 the Department for Education in Northern Ireland issued A Strategy for the Promotion of Literacy and Numeracy in Northern Ireland which outlines the department's strategy explaining why it has chosen not to go down the road of the National Literacy Strategy in England. However, the approaches chosen by the Education and Library Boards in many ways reflect many of the key elements of England's National Literacy Strategy. DENI allocated £3.3 million to the education boards in 2000/01 for the implementation of the strategy. It also launched the Active Literacy Programme video for schools, based on Reading Recovery methods which can be used easily in a group or class setting. The video showed the implementation of the programme at Key Stage 3 (Years 1-3 in Northern Ireland).
In June 2004, proposals for key stage 3, called Pathways, towards a more coherent, enjoyable, motivating and relevant curriculum for young people aged 11-14 was announced. From 2006 the curriculum was slimmed down drastically at key stages 3 and 4. At KS4, pupils will no longer have to study English, maths or science, as in England, as schools are given more freedom to tailor learning to individuals' needs through cross-curricular work and skills.
In 2001, the Assembly's approach to social exclusion was published, called Targeting Social Need. DENI's contribution to this initiative included a range of measures aimed at combating the exclusion of young people in disadvantaged areas through, for example, increased access to and participation in youth programmes. The action plan also commited DENI to taking action on a wide range of fronts to tackle social and educational need, including low achievement in schools.
In 2007, the TES reported that NI's GCSE results (grade C or above) were 9% above England and Wales, and 25% of grades were A or A* compared with 19% in England and Wales. NI did significantly better at A-level as well. Some believe that it is the grammar school system which acheives this success; teachers and academics believed that amongst other factors an absence of teacher shortages was the main influencer. Read this article in full at www.tes.co.uk/search/story/?story_id=2427852
Literacy targets for NI's schools
The literacy target for 11-year-olds by the year 2002 was the same as England's (80% of pupils performing at level 4). However, targets for key stage 3 have also been introduced that are differentiated to reflect the selective nature of the system. Thus by the year 2002, 100% of grammar school students are expected to be achieving at level 5 or above in English; 60% of students in secondary highs are expected to be achieving at this level.
To raise literacy standards DENI chose to focus on the Reading Recovery early intervention technique for addressing the needs of children identified as falling behind at key stage 1. This approach was gradually introduced throughout the area.
In 2006 the NI Audit Office was critical of the disappointing results in reaching the targets set by the literacy strategy despite £40 million of funding since 1998. The report said 25% of children leave primary school without reaching the expected level in reading and writing. Belfast boys were performing worst, with two-thirds of them failing to reach the expected level in English.
Adults
In 1999, John Field, Professor of education at Warwick University made a report into adult literacy levels in Ulster. It found that While GCSE and university entrance statistics in Ulster are better than those in England, Scotland and Wales, many adults in their twenties and thirties were labelled educational failures according to a new report from Warwick university. Prof. Field said : "the Irish Education system 10 years ago did a lot of damage in branding people failures at an early age..The literacy rate is much lower in the Catholic community and that disparity gets worse the older you go. There is a massive divergence between young people with high levels of qualifications and adults with none. A quarter of the adult workforce has no formal qualifications." In April 2002, Minister for Employment and Learning, Carmel Hanna MLA, launched a major strategy entitled 'Essential Skills for Living' which aimed to reduce the number of adults with literacy and numeracy difficulties and to equip them with the basic everyday skills. The strategy was implemented in two broad phases with the aim of engaging 6,500 adult literacy learners by March 2003.
