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	Thousands of primary school children never receive help from their parents with homework.</p>
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	While the majority of parents help their children every day, 4pc of all primary school children, and 28pc of those in post-primary schools, do the homework by themselves.</p>
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	There are 526,000 primary school children in the country, and the figures suggest more than 21,000 receive no help. There are another 362,800 in post-primary, with 102,000 getting no help, according to the Central Statistics Office.</p>
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	Its Quarterly National Household survey is aimed at determining how parents involve themselves in their children&#39;s education and targeted households with children aged between three and 18 years.</p>
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	The parents and guardians of 12,131 children were asked a range of questions on their involvement, and the figures show:</p>
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	* Some 69pc of primary school children and 13pc of secondary students are helped with homework on a daily basis.</p>
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	* Overall, 59pc of parents feel very confident about helping. This rises to 72pc where parents have a third-level degree or higher.</p>
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	* Most parents (93pc) read to their children aged between three and seven years, with 71pc doing so on a daily basis.</p>
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	Overall, 61pc of parents whose first language was English or Irish felt &quot;very confident&quot; about helping, compared with 47pc of those who were more comfortable with other languages. Organisation Youth Work Ireland, a federation of 22 local voluntary services, said that greater assistance for parents, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, could help children remain longer in school.</p>
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	Youth Work Ireland provides help to early school leavers, and said it was well established that parental support was &quot;critical&quot; to young people&#39;s educational performance.</p>
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	&quot;It appears from the survey that we are doing well at primary level but less so at second level,&quot; spokesman Michael McLoughlin said.</p>
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	&quot;This may be because parents see the curriculum as more challenging.</p>
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	&quot;Supporting a young person&#39;s learning can be done without having a full understanding of the subject matter and schools should be facilitating this,&quot; he added.</p>
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	&quot;Parental support for young people can be a holy grail for educational attainment and can be facilitated at limited cost with huge benefit.&quot;</p>
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	http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/thousands-of-parents-never-help-children-with-homework-29884498.html</p>
