Database to track learning progress of primary school pupils

Primary school pupils will have their progress tracked in the education system by a long-awaited database that could help the Government develop better education and social policies.

The Department of Education has been asked for more than 20 years to set up a primary pupil database similar to one that operates for second-level students. It is now preparing to do so, although it will be next year at the earliest before primary schools can use it.

The database could help provide statistics about the country’s 520,000 primary pupils, and provide such important information as:

* How many children do not progress to second level each year

* The progress of children attending disadvantaged schools

* What happens to children with special needs at primary and second level schools.

Unofficial statistics suggest around 1,000 pupils a year do not move from primary to second level. But the absence of a primary database makes it impossible to quantify or identify these children and ensure they attend school.

Department secretary general Seán Ó Foghlú said Education Minister Ruairi Quinn shares the concerns of primary schools about the lack of data available to them and the department to help school planning.

“We hope to commence work shortly, subject to the availability of resources, on the development of a primary learner database,” Mr Ó Foghlú told primary principals at their annual conference.

It is understood the system will be extended to primary level after finalisation of changes to the second-level database set up in 1991. Second-level schools should be able to start feeding student and school information into the new online system at the end of this year, and use it to make their annual returns to the department in 2014.

Irish Primary Principals’ Network president Gerry Murphy said it is wrong that Ireland has a database for almost every farm animal in the country but nothing for our primary school children. He welcomed the department’s plans and suggested it could trial and test any of the data management systems already being used by schools.

Most primary schools use some of the wide range of available software and devices to record and track school attendance, or other data. However, the department wants to ensure that any such systems are compatible with the planned database so there is standardised record-keeping by all schools.

Áine Lynch, chief executive of the National Parents’ Council, welcomed the plans and said it should aim to track children right through from pre-school education.

“It has always been a concern that we don’t have a comprehensive database of who’s in our primary schools,” said Ms Lynch. “It will be a big benefit when you try to look at school admissions and initiatives being set up by the department, because there’s currently no one place to get the right information.”