Combating educational disadvantage through early years and primary school investment

Abstract

In 1965, following a review of second-level education in Ireland, the report Investment in Education was published. While a concern with educational inequality and disadvantage pre-dates this report, it clearly identified the significant socio-economic disparities in educational participation at the time and emphasised an urgent need for remedial action. However, while the discussions emanating from this seminal report are concerned with issues around educational disadvantage, less attention has been given to the processes at play in underlying such inequality. Moreover, it can be argued that overarching debates on educational investment over the last 50 years (as reflected in the papers in this special issue) have focused predominantly on post-primary and higher education, to the detriment of early education. Given the recent proliferation of research stemming from the USA around the significant human capital and societal gains of early years investment – which is especially pronounced for disadvantaged children – this paper argues that it is vitally important that early education is viewed as an important window of opportunity for increased public spending and treated on par with later educational investments.

Keywords:

• Early years
• primary school
• investment in education
• educational disadvantage

Notes on contributor

Denise Frawley is a Research Assistant at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). She is also undertaking a part-time doctorate in Childhood Studies at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB).

Notes

1. The Growing Up in Ireland study is a National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland, tracking the lives of children and their families. The study is a rich data source, incorporating school principal, teacher, parent and child questionnaires, thus allowing us to tap into the holistic processes of educational disadvantage. The sample design for the 9-year-old cohort in Growing Up in Ireland was based on a two-stage selection process in which the school was the primary sampling unit with the children within school being the secondary units. The total sample size achieved was 8578.

2. At primary level, schools are designated as disadvantaged according to the DEIS programme. DEIS schools are differentiated into two urban groups, urban band 1 and urban band 2, and rural DEIS schools. In the case of urban DEIS schools, band 1 schools have greater proportions of socio-economically disadvantaged students and hence receive greater additional supports.