The Government is failing to help disadvantaged children in school, the children's charity Barnardos claimed yesterday.
Almost one in three children in disadvantaged areas have severe difficulty with basic reading and writing, with levels unchanged since 1980 despite numerous interventions, Norah Gibbons, Barnardos' advocacy director, said.
Using data from the Educational Research Centre and consulting with parents and students, the charity yesterday issued a report card on the Government's performance in educating disadvantaged children, grading it under six headings.
Ms Gibbons said the Government was "taking remedial action", such as pledging to lower class sizes to fewer than 20 students per class before 2007 and implementing a reading recovery programme for students having difficulty learning to read and write, but this was not enough.
Parent Michelle Harte, from Moyross in Limerick, said she came from a disadvantaged background and left school during primary.
She said she found learning very difficult as a child and fell behind and never caught up.
"I felt that my teacher had no interest in me so I stopped caring about my education."
Ms Harte put her own children in an after-school programme. "I did not want my children to end up like me, an early school leaver," she said.
She now helps run an after-school club with Barnardos in Limerick.
Barnardos CEO Fergus Finlay said he understood the challenges policy-makers faced when trying to ensure that each child got the help necessary to succeed in school.
To help reinforce its message, Barnardos will be attending teachers' conferences and lobbying political parties to get disadvantaged children the help they need, he said.