From an estimated 352,000 secondary school students, 3,471 (1.0%) students completed the Phase 16 questionnaire of the CensusAtSchool survey. It was available between September 2016 and August 2017. The phase 16 questionnaire covered a variety of topics including:
- UN Sustainable Development Goals
- the level of recycling in households
- the weight of school bags.
Interesting findings from Phase 16 results:
- Students spent over 5 hours on their mobile per day. See Figure 1. Female students reportedly spent over an hour extra on a mobile than males on average. Male students reported that they spent 6 times longer than female students playing games on a PC or games console. See Figure 2.
- In 2016, the vast majority of students carry their bag on both shoulders. See Figure 3. Comparing the data to phase 12 data (published in 2013), female students show almost no change in how they carry their school bag, however males are now more likely to carrying their school bag on two shoulders in 2016 than 2012. See Figure 4a and 4b.
- A greater proportion of 6th year students (over 50%) responded with a high level of concern in relation to climate change. See Figure 5.
- Irish students ranked the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) “No Hunger” as the most important SDG goal to them. The least important goal was “Partnership For The Goals”. See Table 1.
- Students reported that over three quarters of their families engage in recycling. It is more popular than composting or using renewable energies. See Figure 6. Over a third of families engage in recycling alone (35%) and over a third (36%) engage in recycling and composting. See Figure 7.
- Paper/Cardboard is the most popular item by families as reported by the students. See Figure 8.
- The most popular method of composting is using the brown bin and the most popular source of renewable energy is solar. See Figure 9 and 10.
- Over half of students (54%) reported that climate is the main factor when their family decide on a holiday destination with cost of the holiday coming close second (52%). See Figure 11.
- Students were asked to indicate which colour was their favourite. Both male and female students selected blue as their preferred choice. See Figure 12a and 12b.
- Students were asked to indicate what one word described how they felt at that moment. For female students the most popular term was “Tired”. For male students the most popular term was “Happy”. See Figure 13a and 13b.
Background information:
CensusAtSchool is a non-profit making international project. It is funded by organisations interested in promoting good use of statistics, mathematics and data handling. Ireland became involved in CensusAtSchool in 2009. Four Irish bodies are collaborating in this project:
- the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST)
- the CSO
- Project Maths
- the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
The Irish website, www.censusatschool.ie, has been in place since 2009.
