Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
435. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education the progress that has been made on establishing an education research and policy section within her Department tasked with ensuring that education policy development in Ireland is informed by a strong evidence base, is outcome focused and cognisant of best international practices as outlined in the Programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6453/22]
View answerThe Reform, Evaluation, Policy, Statistics & International Division includes the Central Policy Unit, Statistics section, the Public Service Reform Programme Office, and Data Compliance and Support Unit. The division leads the approach in ensuring the development and implementation of evidence-informed policies.
In this context, I can report that progress is being made in developing and strengthening my Department’s research and evaluation capacity. This includes economic and evaluation support from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES), Open Data, the provision of high quality, timely and policy relevant statistics to provide solid evidence for use in planning and resource allocation, publication of the Education Indicators report, providing advice and guidance to support the implementation of sectoral reform and innovation, implementation of the Department's Data Strategy and Open Data, and the Inspectorate’s work to improve the quality of learning and teaching.
