School attendance 'linked to mother's language'

Poor primary school attendance may be linked to the language spoken in their home, new research has suggested.

According to a study from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), a child is nine times more likely to have a poor attendance record if their mother's native language is not English or Irish, compared to a son or daughter of a native speaker of these languages.

Written by Maeve Thornton, Merike Darmody and Selina McCoy of the ESRI and published in the Educational Review, the report identified language spoken in the home as a serious policy issue.

The authors noted the findings are "all the more pertinent in the contest of language support being cut in the 2008 budget due to the recession".

It was also demonstrated that problems with disengagement are linked to the language barriers that prevent a parent from being as involved in their child's education as they would like to be. 

Written by Donal Walsh

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