Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he envisages a project which would support children in Border areas progressing from a primary school in the North to second level in the South; his views that communities of practice should be established between primary teachers and second level teachers to establish successful transfers for students; and if he will give an update on any progress made in this area. [10030/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department, in conjunction with the Department of Education, Northern Ireland, is currently engaged in planning for a joint attitudinal survey exercise to inform cross-border pupil movement and school planning in the border region. The aim of the survey is to establish parental preference in schools and to enable those parents, who so wish, to send their children to schools on the other side of the border. An interim report of work on the survey will be presented to the next North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) Education meeting which will take place in May 2012 with the results from the survey and proposals on the way forward to be considered at the first NSMC Education meeting of 2013. At present there are no plans to establish a community of practice between primary teachers and second level teachers regarding the transfer of students in the border region.