Children in primary and secondary schools in Ireland are not spending enough time learning maths or science, it has been revealed.

The OECD Education At A Glance report highlighted Ireland's problems when it comes to its education policy.

As well as revealing that it spent less money on its schools than 29 other countries, it also showed that less time was given to teaching pupils important subjects such as maths and science.

Pat King, general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, said: "Given that these figures relate to 2007 - before the crisis - they are an even bigger indictment of the failure of successive governments to build the educational infrastructure necessary for the knowledge economy."

Schools in Ireland are likely to re-evaluate the attention given to maths following this report, after 4,000 pupils failed their Leaving Certificates in the subject when results were published this summer.

Another concern that was raised in the report was class size, with Ireland's teachers handling more students in each group than those in many other countries in Europe.

Written by Donal Walsh

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