Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for Education and Science further to Parliamentary Question No. 157 of 5 June 2008, the reason data collected for the academic year 2007-08 regarding students registered on the primary school census and the post-primary database returns, including newcomer children, is not available within the same academic year; if then it has relevance to monitoring outcomes in the academic year to which the data refers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26107/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Annual Census of Primary Schools is a paper-based census. Schools are requested to make their returns by 31st October each year. In the 2007/2008 school year 3,282 ordinary and special primary schools made returns. All returns must be logged as received, checked and in some cases corrected with the input of the school Principal. These returns must then be keyed into a database, and various cross checks and validations must be performed to ensure the integrity of the data. Given the number of schools and returns involved, this process takes many months. In addition some schools can be quite late in making their returns, which can lead to a delay in processing. The information collected is used for payment of some grants, and for statistical purposes including calculating average class sizes.

Work on the development of a Learner Database at Primary Level is continuing. The timing of the implementation of the Database depends on available resources and the management of competing priorities. However, in line with the Programme of Government and the Data Strategy of my Department, and taking advantage of the existing Education Services Interactive (esinet) portal already used by schools to access the On-Line Claims System, I am fully committed to the development of such a Database as a means of better quality information on pupils as well as reducing the administrative burden on schools and significantly reducing the processing time required for the Annual Census.

The Post-Primary Pupils Database (PPPDB) holds basic information on each pupil attending a post primary school. In October of each year, all post primary schools make a return to my Department detailing their enrolments for the year. This is known as the "October Return" and it is used to populate my Department's Post Primary Pupils Database. In the school year 2007/08, 731 schools made returns. The "October Return" gives a snapshot of school enrolments by Programme level (Junior Cert, Leaving Cert, Class Year) as at 30th September each year. Detailed information on the subject choice of each student is also collected.

A good overview of the type of information collected can be gained by looking at the Second-Level Education section of my Department's Annual Statistical Report. Much of the data in that section of the annual report is taken directly from the Post-Primary Pupils Database.

The in-house processing of the October Returns and the provision of a 'Helpdesk' facility for schools is carried out by the Post Primary Pupils Data Section of my Department. The data returned by each school needs to be checked and collated. Processing of the October Returns commences in October of each year and is normally completed around May of the following year. For 2007/2008 there were approximately 336,000 pupils on returns from 731 schools. While provisional figures on overall total enrolments for the school year are available at this stage it takes a number of weeks to prepare the data for publication.

Data for individual schools become available throughout the process as their returns are received, checked and collated. Data from these schools may be used by my Department for a number of tasks, which impact directly on schools and their pupils, including: payment of per capita grants to voluntary secondary schools; determination of the provisional teacher allocations for all sectors i.e. Secondary, Vocational, Community and Comprehensive.