EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES AMONG SCHOOL LEAVERS
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III DATA SOURCE
The analyses in this paper are based on a regular survey of those exiting the
second-level education system5 in Ireland. The School Leavers’ Surveys have
been conducted annually by the Economic and Social Research Institute since
1980. The survey involves personal interviews with those who have left second-
level education in the previous academic year; thus, those who had left school in
the academic year 1978/79 were interviewed in 1980, and so on. A sample of
3 per cent of school-leavers is drawn from a sample of 25 per cent of all schools
in Ireland, resulting in a total sample of approximately 2,000 respondents per
year. As well as information on educational level reached and qualifications
attained, the survey collects data on parental employment status and social class.
In this paper, the six-category Irish social class classification is used with the
amendment that farmers are considered as a separate group due to their
distinctive profile in educational terms. However, contrary to many other studies
of social background and education, a “dominance approach” (Erikson, 1984) is
used in the definition of social class. Thus, social class is based on the mother’s
rather than the father’s position if she is in employment and has a higher social
class than her husband.6 Other Irish studies have tended to use father’s social
class as the basis for analysis even where data on mother’s position have been
available (see, for example, Clancy, 1995).
IV PARTICIPATION IN SECOND-LEVEL EDUCATION
The period since the early 1980s has been one of rapid change in levels of
educational attainment, that is, in the stage at which young people complete
their education. Table 1 indicates the changes which have taken place among
school-leavers over the period 19797 to 1994. Among both males and females,
there has been an increase in the proportion completing Leaving Certificate
level, with a concomitant decrease in those leaving without sitting any formal
examinations (“no qualifications”) and those leaving at the end of the junior
cycle. The decline in those leaving without qualifications has been particularly
marked in the early 1990s. Clear gender differences are apparent over the whole
of the period, with young women more likely to stay on to complete the Leaving
Certificate.
5. The survey includes all those leaving from secondary, vocational, community and comprehensive
schools, including those leaving from Post-Leaving Certificate courses.
6. There is evidence that maternal educational level has an additional effect on school participation
and performance, over and above that of social class (Smyth, 1999). Unfortunately, information on
parental education is not collected in the annual school leavers’ surveys.
7. The 1979 cohort refers to those who left school during the academic year 1978/79 and who
were surveyed in 1980, and so on.