Absence of pupil tracking ‘hinders research’

THE absence of a tracking system to follow the progress of pupils from the start of primary school is hampering work that could help improve education policies, according to a leading researcher.

Since 1991, the Department of Education can monitor patterns of second-level attendance and levels of disadvantage through a database used to calculate dropout rates and other statistics.

However, despite calls from various interest groups over many years and a promise in the 2007 Programme for Government, no database has yet been set up to track primary pupils.