Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1149. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Education the way that her Department and public bodies and agencies under her remit met their obligations under section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 in 2021, including the way that relevant policies and actions are monitored and the way that the obligation is reflected in their annual reports. [41366/22]
View answerThe Department of Education meets its obligations through the Department’s Statement of Strategy and Annual reports. My Department is conscious of its key role in promoting, protecting and vindicating the achievement of the key human right to education. Our Statement of Strategy 2021-2023 articulates a strong focus on equality and human rights, which is reflected in the high level goal to ‘ensure equity of opportunity in education and that all students are supported to fulfil their potential’.
Achieving this goal will enable my Department to meet its obligations under the Public Sector Duty to promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of those it serves and those of its staff. In this regard, it has set a number of commitments including:
- Exploring innovative approaches to ensuring inclusive education for all students
- Tackling educational inequality through the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme
- Narrowing the digital divide through increasing access to broadband and digital technology for schools
- Progressing the implementation of a school inclusion model for learners with additional needs
- Ensuring that teachers and school leaders are provided with appropriate continuing professional development supports to assist them in developing relevant pedagogical skills and delivering inclusive teaching and learning in a variety of school contexts
- Continuing to increase the diversity of school type in order to offer parents more choice, including the transfer of schools to alternative patronage such as Community National Schools
- Engaging in a review of the current school transport scheme to provide a better service for all students
In regard to the information sought by the Deputy relating to the bodies under the aegis of my Department, the material sought is not collated by the Department.
