Irish pupils bottom of the class for school punctuality
IRISH pupils are among the worst in the world for punctuality in school -- or for not turning up for class at all, a study has found.
The survey in 24 developed countries puts Irish 12- to 15-year-olds at the back of the class for interrupting teaching by arriving late, along with teenagers from Mexico and Lithuania.
The most punctual pupils in the world class are from Iceland and the Slovak Republic.
Despite their lateness and poor attendance record, though, Irish pupils are below average when it comes to profanity or swearing, vandalism and cheating and causing disturbances in class, according to TALIS -- the Teaching and Learning International Survey, which is published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Polish pupils are leaders in the profanity field, with Mexicans more adept at cheating than any other country, at least according to their teachers.
Discipline
In the survey, teachers were asked a series of questions about discipline at a specified time.
One-in-five Irish teachers agreed that "when the lesson begins, it is necessary to wait quite a long time for students to calm down", but this figure was well below the TALIS average of 29pc.
Slightly fewer Irish teachers reported that a lot of time was lost because of students interrupting lessons or because there was too much noise in the classroom than the survey's average.
The report shows that, overall, the classroom disciplinary climate is strong in Ireland, Poland and Austria, relative to the average of the 24 countries surveyed.
A total of 2,227 Irish teachers in 142 schools took part in the study.
The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) said the report confirmed that classroom disciplinary problems were worse where average class sizes were larger.
Problems
"This is consistent with a recent TUI survey in which 80pc of respondents indicated that discipline problems now take up considerable time compared to five years ago," said education and research officer Bernie Judge.
The report found high levels of commitment and professionalism among post-primary teachers in Ireland, according to an analysis carried out by the Education Research Centre, Drumcondra.
Ninety per cent of Irish teachers took part in some form of professional development in the 18 months prior to the survey.
However, many say that they need courses in information and computing technologies (34pc); courses in teaching students with special needs (38pc); and courses in teaching in a multi-cultural setting (24pc) as well as student counselling (25pc).
- John Walshe Education Editor
