Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 February 2024
55. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Education the estimated cost that would be incurred by requiring all primary schools to conduct the Drumcondra test in Irish, as well as those already required for English and maths, above the current costs for Irish medium schools where it is already a requirement. [9647/24]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that the Education Research Centre (ERC) develops Irish standardised testing on behalf of the Department. The ERC have estimated that the cost of developing the standardised tests would cost and estimated €1.85m. It would involve the recruitment of new staff and the tests would take a number of years to be completed.
There are addition annual costs for the Department estimated at €1.35m per annum (based on the pupil numbers for 2022/2023 school year. Pupil numbers change from year to year.) These are to allow the schools to purchase the tests/manuals required.
Standardised testing is being considered as part of the development of the new Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy strategy.
