Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

313. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide, in tabular form, a list of second level education institutions aided by her Department, indicating the school roll number and school planning area in each case. [3072/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Please find attached requested data. Please note data provided is for academic year 2022-2023, the latest year we have final enrolment data. We expect to publish final enrolment data for academic year 2023-2024 in June 2024.

">Info

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

314. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide, in tabular form, a list of the 170 second level education institutions in Ireland whose students were assessed in the PISA 2022 survey, indicating the school roll number in each case; and to provide lists of the second level education institutions whose students were assessed in the PISA 2018, PISA 2015, PISA 2012, PISA 2009 and PISA 2006 surveys. [3073/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

PISA is designed to give large scale population level results and is not designed to assess individual student or school performance. Each school that takes part in PISA receives their own feedback from the Educational Research Centre which shows their own results in comparison to the national study but no school has access to another school’s results.

It would not be appropriate to disclose a list of schools who undertake the PISA study. Schools undertake the study on the understanding that their participation is confidential and that they are part of an international study where the large scale data rather than school level data is what is being looked at. In addition, a disclosure of a detailed breakdown of these schools could lead to the compilation of league tables. Section 53 of the Education Act, 1998, allows for the refusal of access to data, which could enable league tables on the comparative performance of students or schools to be determined. I am opposed to the publication of such tables as they provide an unbalanced and very limited indication of a school's performance.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

315. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will clarify whether the transfer of data and/or records from her Department that is transferred to other departments, State bodies and local authorities is in aggregated form or on an individual basis; and the reason the data and/or records are provided. [3078/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As stated in a recent reply, my Department shares data with other organisations for varied purposes such as compliance with employee tax obligations, organisation of the State exams, to support children with special educational needs or those at risk of educational disadvantage, in connection with legal proceedings, reporting of child protection concerns, provision of school transport, audit purposes, referral for financial support under the Affordable Childcare Scheme to support parents to remain in education, and to facilitate student testing for international education studies such as PISA. The transfer of data may be in aggregated form or on an individual basis depending on the specific purpose in question. For example, the data of Department employees is shared on an individual basis with the National Shared Services Office, which operates the payroll for Department staff, in order to facilitate payment of salary.

As stated previously, where my Department shares personal data with another organisation, it does so on the basis of the lawful grounds set out in the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 and with appropriate governance arrangements in place. The sharing is notified to data subjects through the Department’s overall Data Protection Notice and Privacy Notices.