Meeting 4

Education Statistics Liaison Group (ESLG) Meeting

Location: Microsoft Teams

Date: 27^th June 2024

Attendance:

27 people attended the 4^th ESLG meeting remotely via Microsoft Teams, representing 8 Public Services Bodies. A full list of those in attendance can be found at the end of this document.

Agenda

Item 1: Welcome and Updates - Paul Morrin – Central Statistics Office (CSO), Paul Alexander – Department of Education (DoE), Oliver Radcliffe – Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS)

• Paul Morrin opened the meeting and welcomed members to the liaison group. The minutes of the last meeting were circulated in advance and were taken as read.

Organisational Updates from CSO

• Jennifer Banim has been appointed the new Director General of the CSO.
• The CSO has created new sectoral divisions such as the Housing Division and Health & Social Cohesion Division to consolidate sectoral statistics into these divisions.
• Education is remaining with the Statistical System Coordination Unit (SSCU) and Rob Kelly is the new senior statistician with responsibility, replacing Kieran Culhane.

Updates from DoE

• There were changes to the Management Board. Anne-Marie Sherkle is now acting Assistant Director General and Chief Information Officer and Ada Mulvihill is now Principal Officer with responsibility for ICT Apps Development/Support.
• There were a number of recent publications including ‘Projections of Enrolment’, ’Education Indicators’, ‘Signs of Life’ report imminent, survey of substitutes, and survey of unmet demand.
• The Education Statistics Data hub has been launched: https://education-statistics-doeirl.hub.arcgis.com/  Education Statistics Liaison Group members are invited to view and comment.
• The statistics section will be taking over the collection of the deployment of teaching resources in the coming school year, national survey of school preferences is to launch in the second half of this year.
• In consultation with DFHERIS and HEA colleagues, DoE are now compliant with the ENRL (data on enrolments by academic year and at all levels of education) return to UOE[1].
• In consultation with DFHERIS, DoE amended the question as part of the Census 2027 pilot to include mode of qualification (vocational/traditional) to future proof against upcoming UOE data collections.
• Paul Alexander (DoE) is the main contact point for the Eurostat Education and Training Statistics (ETS) expert group. The contact list was updated and 13 CSO staff who used to work on education statistics have been removed.
• Future plans:

          -    Will produce subnational projections using a statistical downscaling approach.

          -    Will convene working group with DFHERIS and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability,                        Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) to revise the annual indicators report.

          -    Will conduct a longitudinal analysis of Newly Qualified Teachers.

          -    Will pursue Irish Statistical System Code of Practice (ISSCOP) certification on teacher statistics.

[1] Joint collection of education data by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat, referred to as UOE data.

Updates from DFHERIS

• Projections of enrolments in Further Education & Training (FET) are being progressed. A publication is anticipated towards year-end, subject to completion of an expert group review of preliminary model developed last year.
• The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies or PIAAC (OECD Survey of Adult Skills) results are to be published in December.
• The internal review of key performance metrics, including those reported on as part of the Education Indicators for Ireland report by DoE and DFHERIS.
• DFHERIS is in the early stage of engagement, together with CSO and sectoral stakeholders, with the OECD on the Research & Innovation Careers Observatory (ReICO) project.
• DFHERIS have been identifying where data can be published via PxStat. Initial datasets targeted for PxStat publication are the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) and Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) Surveys.
• DFHERIS is hosting two Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Public Service Research Fellows whose projects are focused on the impact of the tertiary system on innovation.

Item 2: Further Education Outcomes – Graduation Year 2021: Anais Colibaba (CSO)

Anais Colibaba (CSO) delivered a presentation on the findings of the Further Education Outcomes release of graduates from 2010 to 2021. It highlighted that more than 70% of 2021 graduates in the first year after graduation were in substantial employment and this accounts for a 12% increase on 2016 graduates.

Questions / comments:

Nora Condon (Solas) asked if there is a numerical breakdown of women in the ICT field of study.

Anais replied that the information is published in PxStat and further commented that female information and communication technology (ICT) graduates in 2016 earned more than their male counterparts after 5 years and a greater proportion were in higher education.

Further Education Outcomes Presentation for ESLG (PPT 4,255KB)

Item 3: Analysis of Supply Issues in the Education Sector

Presentation 1: Geographic analysis of the teacher workforce: Paul Alexander (DoE)

Paul Alexander (DoE) provided an overview of work undertaken with Olwyn Byrne (DoE) on a geostatistical analysis of the teaching workforce. The presentation described the demand and supply analysis of the teaching workforce which led to the Teaching Workforce Data Project to identify where the teaching shortages are. Geostatistical indicators were developed to identify why shortages existed in particular areas and the findings were presented.

Questions / comments:

Rob Kelly (CSO) queried if population growth for urban and rural populations were considered, and Aoife Conduit queried if deprivation was captured in the model by accounting for DEIS schools.

Paul clarified that these new housing developments were examined and DEIS status is included in the model.

There was discussion on an urban allowance for the teaching workforce and its impact on other areas of the public sector.

Presentation 2: Substitute teaching in Ireland survey: Padraig Brock (DoE)

Padraig Brock (DoE) presented the results from the first survey of substitute teachers carried out by DoE. An analysis of the number of hours substitute teachers were available to work vs the hours they actually worked was presented.

Questions / comments:

There was discussion that while responses to the survey largely conformed to expectations, the results quantified the scale of the issues for the first time and identified that local networks often provided a stronger match between job applicants and job vacancies than the educationposts.ie portal.

Item 4: Pilot Virtual Data Room - Education Project: Rob Kelly (CSO)

Rob Kelly (CSO) gave an overview of the CSO’s pilot Virtual Data Room Service for public sector organisations to carry out statistical analysis to support evidence-based decision making. He invited proposals from education stakeholders for the next stage of the pilot.

Questions / comments:

There were queries on the possibility to extend the time frames of the data room to allow continuous or annual evaluation of a policy question and if there’s a template application form for policy question proposals.

Rob and Paul Morrin (CSO) clarified that an application form is available by contacting Rob and that the project is still in a pilot phase and that all aspects of user requirements will be reviewed in 2025.

Item 5: AOB / Open Discussion

Kevin Healy (CSO) provided an update that the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey is in the dissemination phase with results published in December 2024.

Action items:

1. Circulate presentation slides from meeting to all ESLG members.
2. Organise next ESLG meeting.
3. Ask for volunteers to present at the next meeting.