Q&A: What is the primary school survey and what does it mean for children and parents?
The data published this week provides the most comprehensive picture to date of what families want when it comes to primary school education, now and in the future.
The primary school survey is one of the largest surveys of education ever undertaken in Ireland. It asked families with children in school, and families of pre-school children, their preferences on three aspects of primary school education, collecting their responses with a series of short, close-ended questions.
Parents were asked their preferences on school patronage and ethos, co-educational or single-sex schools and language of instruction, either English or Irish. For the first time ever, parents of pre-school children were also asked their preferences for the school they intend to send their child to.
The Department of Education received 200,381 valid responses from parents and guardians, representing 41.3% of all eligible households and constituting “a very large analytical base for a national survey of this nature".
Responses were linked to Eircodes, and cross-referenced with data from the department, as well as child benefit data, to ensure they were genuine. Just over 32,900 responses were also collected from staff and boards of management members.
On a national level, the survey found strong overall demand for co-education, with the majority (73.5%) of parents with children attending single-sex schools expressing a preference for co-education.
It also found that approximately 40% of parents with children attending religious-run schools, and who intend to send their child to a denominational school, have a preference for multi-denominational education.
A significant proportion of parents also expressed a preference for Irish-medium education; Just under 14% of parents with children in schools that teach through English, and parents who intend to enrol their children in schools that teach through English, expressed a preference for Irish.
The data published this week provides the most comprehensive picture to date of what families want when it comes to primary school education, now and in the future.
Most primary schools remain under religious patronage, with the vast majority of these schools under the Catholic church. At the same time, Census data shows that more and more non-religious marriages are taking place.
It’s been long accepted that some religious-run primary schools must divest their patronage to increase the number of multi-denominational schools on offer for parents, therefore increasing choice. However, previous efforts to do so, through a process called reconfiguration, stalled in recent years.
The survey also examined parental preferences on co-education, and Irish-medium education. Ireland remains an outlier when it comes to single-sex schools, and there has also been a groundswell of support from parents in recent years seeking more gaelscoil options.
On Tuesday, the department published each individual school report online. These reports show how many parents took part in the survey, what preferences they expressed, and what the margin of error might be.
Individual schools in different areas may have higher or lower proportions of parents who took part, or who expressed certain preferences.
However, the surveys are intended to act as a 'starting point' for schools to now enter into discussions with their communities on their future direction in cases when they can see local parents want change.
The first changes are expected to be seen in schools from September 2027, and schools who wish to be included in the first phase are asked to notify the department and their patron by the end of October.
- Jess Casey is education correspondent for the
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