Residents of an estate in Kilkenny city are giving a lead in the drive to reduce illiteracy. The level of illiteracy in this State was highlighted last month by a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It revealed that 25 per cent of Irish adults are functionally illiterate.
In The Butts, Kilkenny's largest corporation estate, the problem is being addressed before it gets a chance to develop, by focusing on primary school children with learning difficulties.
Every evening throughout the school year the Kilkenny volunteers provide one-to-one tuition to children who have fallen behind their peers at school. Inaugurated as a pilot scheme in 1997, "the homework club" is achieving spectacular results. The club currently helps 32 children and there are others on a waiting list.
The scheme is run by a team operating from the community-owned Father McGrath Centre. Those involved, however, are highly critical of the level of support provided by the Department of Education and Science.
An extra teacher to work exclusively with children on the programme will take up duties in September following a commitment given by the former minister, Mr Micheal Martin, when he visited the centre last year.
However, parents still have to raise an annual £10,000 for running costs, including heating and insurance, themselves. An application to the Department for a fulltime worker to support the 57 volunteer tutors, and funding towards the overall cost, has been unsuccessful to date. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said the application was being considered.
"While the teacher is very welcome, we need a full-time community person to liase with the families, to recruit the children and to support and train the tutors," says Mr Stephen Murphy, a full-time community development worker at the centre.
The Father McGrath Centre, which is run by local volunteers and FAS community employment workers, provides a range of childcare and adult education support services.
The homework club began as a pilot project in 1997 when community activists, aware of the high adult illiteracy levels now shown to be a national problem, decided to address the issue.
Research carried out by the Butts women's group established that some parents were unable to help children with reading and writing because of their own literacy problems.
Mothers in the women's group, many of whom left school early themselves, argued that tomorrow's early school-leavers were today's primary school under-achievers.
Without a prototype from which to work, and unsure if they would be successful, community leaders set up the 12-week pilot programme, for 12 children aged from six to 10. Children who were having trouble with school work or finding a quiet place to study attended the centre for one-to-one tuition, lasting an hour, four evenings a week.
Sister Mary Bourke, a retired teacher, read about efforts to start the project and became involved. She designed the programme and established links with local teachers.
Only one child dropped out before the three months was completed, and all of the participants showed immediate improvements in their schoolwork. "The impact of it was so great that we realised we were on to something here, that this could actually make a difference," said Mr Murphy.
He said he was surprised at the number of volunteers the chairman of the centre, Mr Con Downey, was able to recruit. Many of the 57 tutors are retired people from The Butts, which is a high-density estate with a population of nearly 1,000.
"Every single child on this programme has shown dramatic improvements. The teachers are telling us that," Mr Murphy said.
Not only are the children performing better at school, but those who had behavioural problems are proving much more settled in class, making teachers' jobs easier and improving the classroom environment. Parents, teachers and tutors say the children's self-esteem has also improved.
Perhaps the biggest achievement of all has been getting the children to participate. A key to its success has been keeping it as informal as possible. "We give them a mineral and biscuits and when they come in and see some of their own gang already there that encourages them," said Mr Downey.
A "share incentive" system was also introduced, whereby children who arrive in time are awarded "shares" which, at the end of a term, are given a cash rate. Bonus shares are also given. Sports, books and toy shops sponsor goods and an auction is held. Unsurprisingly, children who are not members of the club are asking to join.
