An abstract of  FELA paper on Irish Literacy. You can download the whole paper here

Interrogating literacy policy and achievement in Irish schools in the content of
The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy: A positive picture and some
possible ways forward Dr Brian Murphy, School of Education, University College Cork, Ireland.

This paper begins with a consideration of the power and impact of international literacy assessments
especially the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) on education policy
worldwide. It reflects on and reassesses contemporary literacy policy developments for Irish schools
resulting from one average performance in literacy in the PISA international assessment in 2009. It
reappraises the resulting Irish National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2011-2020 and its impact on
literacy development in schools in the context of its recent interim review by the Irish Department of
Education and Skills (DES). It considers some of the successes, progress and possible issues generally
acknowledged in its period of implementation and compares and contrasts them with those actually
explicitly acknowledged by the DES in the Interim Review of the aforementioned Strategy. While there
are some areas of commonality, there are clear issues and priorities in respect of literacy not officially
acknowledged by the interim report, which the paper goes on to discuss and examine. It concludes
with a consideration of some key elements of literacy development, which should inform and support
national literacy policy and practice going forward. Such elements are put forward as desirable policy
priorities and developments for literacy policy in Irish schools going forward with a view to maximising
literacy learning outcomes on behalf of all teachers and students in Irish schools.