Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has today, Tuesday 16 May launched the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021[END INTRO], The National Assessments of Mathematics and English Reading (NAMER) 2021 and the NAMER DEIS reports.

The PIRLS study found:
Ireland retains its place among a subset of high-achieving countries in relation to primary school reading.
• No EU or OECD country achieved a score that was significantly higher than Ireland’s score in PIRLS 2021.
• The comparative national trend for Ireland is positive, with Ireland’s mean score of 577 on PIRLS 2021, 11 points higher than the comparable national score in 2016 and 25 points higher than in 2011. As pupils in 2021 were older than those in 2016, due to the delay in testing with covid, this is interpreted as suggesting that reading achievement has at least remained stable between the last two PIRLS cycles.

PIRLS is a project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The study is managed on behalf of the Department of Education by the Educational Research Centre (ERC). PIRLS is designed to assess the reading achievement of fourth class pupils (or the equivalent grade level internationally) and to support the measurement of trends, enabling each country to track their own performance over time, as well as facilitating comparisons with 56 other countries.

NAMER
NAMER are national surveys of reading and mathematics at primary school level. Also conducted on behalf of the Department by the ERC, they provide a snapshot of the mathematical and reading skills of second and sixth class pupils in Ireland, and can help to identify areas of strength and weakness, and to inform educational policy and practice. These assessments also provide important information on a range of factors that may affect attainment.

Minister Foley said:
“Launching both PIRLS and NAMER today gives us a unique snapshot into the learning achievements of our young people in both the spring and autumn of 2021. These results are extremely positive news for Ireland. We have retained our place among a small set of high achieving countries for achievement in fundamental skills in our schools at a time where particular strain was put on school communities globally due to Covid-19.
I would like to pay tribute to and thank teachers, principals, parents and children themselves, for their sterling work to support learning and each other during this period. On the return to in-school learning, schools focused hugely on wellbeing, literacy and numeracy, and clearly this focus has allowed for fundamental skills to remain stable in our schools.”

“It is a policy of the Department of Education that the curriculum is developed for all learners, from all backgrounds, and I think that these reports are an important tool in informing the decisions that ensure this.
Work in terms of narrowing the gap between DEIS and non- DEIS schools is also underway, and utilising what we have learned from both the PIRLS and NAMER reports, we will be able to continue with what is working well within the system and work towards improving other processes. These assessments are a snapshot in time and I am confident that changes in our primary curriculum will have a positive impact in the very near future.”


PIRLS 2021
In total, 320,542 pupils in 57 countries participated in PIRLS 2021, along with their parents/guardians, teachers, and principals. A further 47,033 pupils took part on behalf of eight benchmarking participants.[1]
In Ireland, pupils from 148 schools took part in Autumn 21 and at the start of fifth class (Start G5). The decision to test in Autumn was due to the impact of Covid-19 and school closures.

The sample of schools was balanced by language of instruction, DEIS status and gender mix. A cohort of 4,663 pupils participated in the paper-based PIRLS written test. In addition, 4,322 parents, 4520 teachers, and 4,610 school leaders responded to questionnaires. This represented a very high participation rate from Irish schools. The 2021 score must be interpreted in the context of the relevant caveat: the average performance of the Start G5 pupils in autumn 2021 (with average age 11.0) was 11 points higher than that of the End G4 pupils in spring 2016 (with average age 10.5). It is reasonable to expect that pupils in Ireland performed somewhat better in autumn 2021 than they would have done in spring.

PIRLS 2021 records the following about performance in Ireland:

• Ireland retains its place among a subset of high-achieving countries in relation to primary school reading.
• No EU or OECD country achieved a score that was significantly higher than Ireland’s score in PIRLS 2021.
• The only country that achieved a mean score higher than Ireland’s was Singapore (which tested at the end of Grade 4). Hong Kong (which also tested at the end of Grade 4) achieved a mean score not significantly different to Ireland’s. All other participating countries achieved mean scores significantly lower than Ireland.
• Pupils in Ireland, at the start of fifth class in 2021, achieved a significantly higher mean score than pupils in the other 13 countries that tested at the beginning of Grade 5 (G5), with Northern Ireland being the next highest-achieving of this group.
• Singapore, the highest-performing country on PIRLS 2021, tested at the end of Grade 4 (G4). Their mean scores were significantly higher than Ireland’s.
• Hong Kong also tested at the end of Grade 4; their mean score was not significantly different to Ireland’s.
• The comparative national trend for Ireland is very positive, with Ireland’s mean score of 577 on PIRLS 2021, 11 points higher than the comparable national score in 2016 and 26 points higher than in 2011. Interpreted with the caveat in mind, this suggests that stability from 2016 has at least been maintained.
• Most pupils in Ireland were very confident (49%) or somewhat confident (34%) about reading, with 17% not confident (PIRLS Students Confident in Reading Scale).

Dr Emer Delaney, Educational Research Centre, one of the report’s authors said: “Overall, it is positive that reading proficiency in Ireland appears to have at least remained stable between 2016 and 2021, given the disruption caused by the pandemic and the fact that performance in many other countries declined.”

Overall, performance on mean scores and proficiency levels in the National Assessments of English reading and Mathematics (NAMER) appears stable; pupil attainment remained broadly similar between 2014 and 2021. In early May 2021 in 188 primary schools, 5,201 pupils in second class undertook the English reading test only and 5,516 pupils in sixth class undertook the mathematics test only. The scope of the 2021 NAMER was reduced in the context of Covid-19 to minimise the administrative load on school staff and the testing burden on pupils, while still gathering sufficient data for the study. Parent/guardian questionnaires were not administered in 2021. The participation and completion rates for NAMER 21 are similar to 2009 but slightly below the 2014 levels. However, they are still high given that the assessments were conducted in schools when Covid-19 was still very prevalent. This is a positive outcome for the assessment.

Joanne Kiniry, Educational Research Centre, one of the authors said: “It is reassuring that despite the disruption to schooling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the results seen in NAMER 2021 point towards stability of performance in English reading and mathematics since 2014.”
In NAMER 2021, there was a larger number of pupils from urban DEIS schools than in earlier cycles of the National Assessments. The purpose of this larger sample was to provide more accurate estimates of achievement levels in DEIS schools than had previously been possible.

• There was no significant change in average English reading performance between 2014 and 2021 in Urban Non-DEIS, Urban Band 1 or Urban Band 2 schools.
• In NAMER 2021, 25% of second-class pupils in Urban Band 1 schools had reading scores at or above Level 3. The target for high achievers in Urban Band 1 schools specified in the DEIS Plan was 25% so the target has been met.
• Second class pupils in Urban Non-DEIS schools significantly outperformed pupils in Urban Band 1 and Urban Band 2 schools in English reading.
• Similar percentages of second-class pupils in Urban Band 1 schools were classified as low achievers in reading in 2014 and 2021.
• There was no significant change in average sixth class mathematics scores between 2014 and 2021 in Urban Non-DEIS, Urban Band 1 or Urban Band 2 schools.
• In sixth class Mathematics, pupils in Urban Non-DEIS schools significantly outperformed their counterparts in Urban Band 1 schools. The gap in average achievement between Urban Non-DEIS and Urban Band 1 schools was very similar in 2014 and in 2021 (about 30 points in both cycles).
• In 2021, there was no significant difference in the average mathematics scores of pupils in Urban Band 2 schools and Urban Non-DEIS schools.


Dr Lorraine Gilleece, Educational Research Centre, one of the authors, said: “The achievement gap between DEIS and Non-DEIS schools has not widened between 2014 and 2021. These findings are to be welcomed in the context of international evidence of learning loss and the particular impact of COVID-19 on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Contextual reports on PIRLS, NAMER, and Urban DEIS schools in NAMER will be published later. These will examine factors associated with performance, based on data gathered from the questionnaires completed by school principals, teachers, pupils, and (for PIRLS) parents.

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