Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 109: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when her Department will publish the statement of data strategy for 2008 to 2010 that deals with data sharing between her Department and its agencies, regarding tracking students who leave school before junior certificate examinations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6046/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to confirm to the Deputy that it is my intention to publish a Data Strategy for my Department, covering the 2008 to 2010 period, in March 2008.

The Data Strategy will provide an important contribution to the ongoing development of the evidence-base for education policy over the coming years. Making better use of existing data as well as introducing new and essential sources of information is a key goal for the Department as it seeks to provide services in an increasingly diverse and challenging environment. The Strategy will outline a number of goals and actions to improve the quality and supply of data over the coming three-year period within the resources available to the Department and associated agencies. Included among these will be the development of a Learner Database to encompass all pupils at Primary level and, as a subsequent phase, students at post-primary level.

The development of a Learner Database at Primary level has been identified as a priority in the Programme for Government. It has the potential to facilitate better policy-planning and evaluation and more detailed identification of learner needs in different parts of the country. As part of the development, work has already begun in examining the feasibility of developing a single information platform for schools on which data providers could exchange information with the Department and key agencies such as NEWB, NCSE and the State Examinations Commission. The scale of operation involved, the complexities relating to multiple data requirements and the availability of staff resources to advance the project need to be carefully considered. Resulting from this initial exploratory phase it will be possible to scope out the likely scale and timeline of a Learner Database.

My aim is to improve the quality and scale of data-gathering, subject to data protection guidelines and legislation, to provide up-to-date information on the situation in relation to any pupil — where they are at school, if they are not in any form of education or training and how their needs can be best catered for. This is why the development of a single individualised Learner Database — based on the Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) — and linked to relevant public data holdings can transform the possibilities for using high-quality information and support public services to individual learners as well as reduce the burden of data collection on schools who presently have to make multiple returns to various agencies.