Lack of access to books adding to impact of poverty on children’s education, ESRI finds

Persistently poor children are more than twice as likely to dislike school and have lower educational aspirations with a lack of access to books a key cause, a report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.

The research think tank pointed to the need for subsidies to ensure equal access to cultural and sports activities for children and young people of all economic backgrounds, and to ensure positive school environments to mitigate the impact of poverty.

Prior research had identified a link between childhood poverty and worse educational outcomes, but there had been little research to explain why this link existed, the ESRI said. The report, funded by Department of Children, Disability and Equality, attempted to fill that research gap.

About half of Irish children were in poverty at some stage before the age of 13, with one in five children experiencing three or more spells before they became a teenager. Each period in poverty was found to cause a decline in reading level.

Persistently poor schoolchildren in Ireland are more than twice as likely to dislike school than those who have not experienced poverty, the report found.

The gap in test scores was credited by the ESRI report to be down to poverty restricting access to books, a lack of time spent reading to the child by the time they are five, and other home activities that help enhance cognitive development.

“Children living in poverty are less likely to be involved in cultural and sports activities, which plays an important role in mediating the effects on test scores at age nine,” the report reads.

As the child grows older, the influence of home factors is lessened and school and teachers have a greater influence.

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However, among children aged nine who were classified as being in poverty throughout much of their childhood, 9 per cent said they ‘never like school’ compared with just 4 per cent of those who were never poor. The report found a similar gap in attitudes among 13-year-olds.

Spending time in poverty also leads children to have a lower expectation of their possible future educational achievements. While nearly four in five (79 per cent) children aged 13 expect to get a degree later in life, this figure falls to just 62 per cent among persistently poor children.

ESRI research professor Emer Smyth, one of the report’s authors, said its findings “point to the importance of providing access to a range of extracurricular activities and promoting parent-child reading”.

She said “better-quality relationships between teachers and students” were found to improve children’s engagement in school and directly with those teachers’ subjects, and enhances their “educational expectations and cognitive development”.

“School climate is key in addressing the impact of poverty on children and young people.”

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The Minister for Children, Norma Foley, said the findings show the importance of “tackling child poverty given the impact that it has on children’s education and life opportunities”.

“Helping children to access supports at home as well as at school, and providing after-school access to sports, drama, art and music are important parts of giving every child the best possible start,” the Minister said.