I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department, in conjunction with the Educational Research Centre, recently requested schools to complete a social context survey, to assist the development of an educational profile for schools which might support a proposed new model for allocating resource teachers to schools.
Though recognising that all schools would not be able to have specific detail regarding all of the questions asked in relation to their pupil populations, schools were asked to provide their best possible estimates in relation to the questions being asked in the survey, in order to ensure that as accurate as possible a social context allocation component of any revised allocation model could be developed for each school.
The data which schools were requested to return as part of the survey was non-personal, anonymised data.
Schools were not asked to return personal or sensitive data in relation to the social circumstances of individual pupils or their families.
Schools were also advised that the ERC had put in place a dedicated phone help line in order to provide assistance and support to schools in completing the questionnaire. I understand that many schools used this help line to gain assistance in completing the questionnaire.
The impact of a school not participating in a survey designed to assist in establishing a school profile is that it may be more difficult to establish an accurate school profile for that school, in the absence of data submitted by the school.
I can advise that the Primary Online Database (POD) collects two personal sensitive data items on pupils from schools.
These are collected on an optional basis only both of which require parental/guardian consent. They are 1) pupil's religion, the purpose of collecting same is purely statistical, and; 2) pupil's ethnic and cultural background. The purpose of collecting ethnic or cultural background is that this will help the Department to build up a more comprehensive statistical profile of the diversity of our primary school population.
Data on the number of pupil who are members of the traveller community in mainstream schools is also required to pay the enhanced capitation for travellers to schools.
Only the Departments statistics and IT sections will have access to this data. There is no impact on the schools if the information on religion is not returned. There is no impact on schools at present if the information on Ethnic or Cultural Background is not returned, however, as POD has been developed to replace a number of data collections including the National School Annual Census, for the 2016/2017 academic year onwards, if pupils who are Members of the Traveller Community are not identified in POD the school will not be able to receive the enhanced capitation for travellers.
Finally, I can advise that my Department also collects details of post-primary students enrolled as at 30th September each year. The number of students enrolled is used in the allocation of staff and funding to schools. The data on exam entrants for Junior and Leaving are passed to State Examinations Commission. Full details in relation to the details collected and the usage and purpose of these returns is set out in DES Circular 47/2010.
