Irish pupils are performing well in the key subject areas, despite having to contend with crowded classrooms, poor funding, boredom and a lack of facilities, according to a new report from the OECD.
They outperform their international counterparts in reading, science and to a lesser extent maths, despite large class sizes and a poor pupil-teacher ratio, it finds.
The Republic's pupil-teacher ratio at primary and second level is among the worst of the 27 countries surveyed by the OECD in the report, entitled Education at a Glance 2002. It also notes that the Irish exchequer invests far less per pupil than other states.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, acknowledged in a statement last night that the Republic's education spending was still well behind other countries. "We need to focus on increasing the resources we allocate to first- and second-level education," he said. However, expenditure had dramatically increased since 1995.
The report notes that Irish schools believe their performance is being held back by a lack of computers and laboratory equipment. Students also indicate that they rarely use their school library.
However, the report finds teachers receiving strong backing from their pupils, who credit them with their strong performance in reading and scientific literacy.
Irish teachers are noted in the report for giving out regular homework and correcting it thoroughly. The climate in classrooms is also reported to be good. However, of all the countries surveyed Irish pupils report the highest level of boredom.
Teachers' salaries in the Republic are high compared to other countries, the report also finds, although Irish teachers put in more hours during the year than many of their counterparts.
The report is the main source of information on education standards and performance in the industrialised world. Governments throughout Europe and elsewhere take its findings extremely seriously, and last year the poor performance of German schools prompted heated debate in that country.
Another criticism of the Republic arises in the area of adult education. It has the fifth-worst record in the OECD for providing adult education courses, and Mr Dempsey said he was concerned at this finding. Less than a fifth of adults surveyed said they had received any fresh education or training in recent times.
The performance of Irish pupils in reading was extremely good, finishing in fifth position. In science they finished eighth. The performance in maths was less impressive, although this may be because Irish pupils receive less teaching in maths per week than most OECD countries.