Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 March 2023
116. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Education in follow-up to the recommendation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, if she will publish education-related data disaggregated by ethnic origin. [10574/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department’s electronic databases, POD (Primary Online Database) and P-POD (Post-primary Online Database), hold data on all primary and post-primary school pupils, including their name, address, PPSN, date of birth and nationality. On an optional basis and requiring written consent from a parent/guardian, P-POD also contains data on students’ mother tongue and both databases contain information on ethnic/cultural background. Questions on ethnic/cultural background are non-compulsory and based on voluntary self-identification. Written consent from a parent/guardian is required.
Questions about ethnic/cultural background were developed in consultation with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and are based on the ethnic/cultural categories included in the Census of Population since 2011.
Specifically, POD and P-POD ethnic/cultural background data is collected using the following categories:
- White Irish
- Irish Traveller
- Roma
- Any other White Background
- Black or Black Irish - African
- Black or Black Irish - any other Black background
- Asian or Asian Irish - Chinese
- Asian or Asian Irish - any other Asian background
- Other (inc. mixed background)
There is a Programme for Government commitment to ensure robust data collection on the use of reduced timetables. The new Guidelines for the use of Reduced School Days in Schools came into effect on 1 January 2022, and these include the requirement for schools to notify Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) of the use of all reduced school day arrangements. The process of notifying TESS involves a notification form, which provides the option to include the student’s ethnic background; the question is optional and written consent from the parent/guardian is required to collect the information. My Department intends to publish a report on reduced school days data shortly.
