Funding has been approved to continue researching the progress of more than 500 children who the Ministry of Education began monitoring nine years ago, Education Minister Trevor Mallard said today.

The Competent Children longitudinal research series will now track the progress of the sample group from the Wellington region at age 14. The government is committing just over half a million dollars to this stage of the research. The children were five years old when the research first began.

“The next phase is particularly significant as it will allow information to be gathered on the children’s progress through the transition to secondary school,” Trevor Mallard said.

He said the material collected about the children at age 14 will also add useful information to existing studies of students’ further education and employment aspirations and qualification and employment outcomes.

“Researchers will chart different patterns including peer relations, the onset of puberty and student motivation in relation to learning.”

Information about the children was collected when they were age five, six, eight and most recently at age 10.

“When I released Competent Children at 10, the last phase to be published, the results reinforced the value of early childhood education.”

“The research will continue to provide a wealth of information about the relative contributions of home, school and early childhood education to the progress of this group.”

The next report in the series will be released next year on the children at age 12.

Research on the 14-year phase will take place over a three-year period with the results available in 2005.