Debate contribution: RAISE: Failure to Tackle Educational Underachievement

Debate contribution by Mr Peter Martin on 5 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Peter Martin

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

5 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

RAISE: Failure to Tackle Educational Underachievement

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4631598

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Members opposite for tabling the motion, which allows for debate on this incredibly important issue. Members will know of the passion that I have had for tackling educational underachievement for a number of years. In fact, in 2016, my party was the first of the Executive parties to publish research in that area, with recommendations on how to solve it. At this point, I pay tribute to Dr John Kyle, who also published research when the topic was not being discussed in the House back in 2015. I agree with the proposer that socio-economic background is an important predictor of educational achievement. However, it is not the only one, and that is a substantial problem with how the motion is worded. I will provide some other simple predictors. For boys, having a male teacher as a positive role model can have a significant impact. Another is the home environment in which a child is brought up and the level of engagement by parents in a child's education. Parental aspirations and attitudes also have massive impacts on a child's development and eventual educational achievement. We need to look at the actual data in order to understand what is quite a complex issue. The Community Relations Council published some now fairly historical data, which I used when I was writing my report. Its research found that 73·6% of girls from a Chinese background who were on free school meals, on average, achieved five GCSEs, and that boys in Northern Ireland who were not on free school meals, at that point, were achieving 58·6%. That is an interesting message. It simply says that entitlement to free school meals is not the only indicator of educational achievement. My understanding is that the RAISE —.

I agree with the Member that it is one of the predictors, but it is not the only one. RAISE is a place-based programme. As Members have said, it came out of the 'A Fair Start' report, which was an excellent report from the panel chaired by Noel Purdy. There has already been some chat about the actual criteria that were used. Seven indicators were used for the programme, based on superoutput areas. It is worth reading out the list. They are: free school meals entitlement, which has been referenced; the level of GCSE attainment in schools; pupil absence rates, which are important to educational outcomes; the prevalence of special educational needs; the number of crime and antisocial behaviour incidents in the area; a statistic that measured income deprivation affecting children; and another statistic that measured health deprivation and disability. I challenge the proposers of the motion and the amendment to tell the House which criteria they would leave out if they deemed them to be unworthy of inclusion. What RAISE is trying to do, and what we have sometimes done in the past, is simply to attach funding to areas where there is high uptake of free school meals or, as the Member has suggested, areas of economic deprivation, and we have not been sophisticated about how we have tried to target that funding. This programme is simply becoming more sophisticated in getting the intervention to the children who actually really need it. For me, that is incredibly important. The phrase in the motion:

" that, by design, this programme will not deliver based on objective need"

is erroneous. In fact, the opposite is true. I commend the Education Minister for bringing forward the RAISE programme. I am really heartened. I hope that Members agree that anything that tries to address educational underachievement in Northern Ireland should be welcomed. However, the measurement, as the Member referred to, is simply a more sophisticated way of trying to intervene. Finally, to clear up another misunderstanding, I point out that it is not a schools-based programme; it is a community-informed one. Schools may very well be part of the solution, but not exclusively so. Interventions could include programmes delivered through community groups, churches or youth organisations. I hope and believe that the programme will deliver really positive interventions for our children in Northern Ireland.

685 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:30 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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