Ireland: Enhancing student participation in policy development
The Irish Department of Education has launched a report and implementation plan to enhance student participation in policy development, committing to key actions such as staff training and annual reporting.
Minister for Education Norma Foley today announced the launch of the report of the Expert Group on Student Participation and of the Department of Education’s Student Participation Implementation Plan. These contain five key recommendations to ensure students are included meaningfully in policy development and will be implemented by the department in full.
The expert group on student participation was established in May 2023 to advise the Department of Education on how best to improve its work on involving children and young people in policy development. The group, chaired by Professor Laura Lundy, Queen’s University Belfast, and University College Cork, adopted a child rights-based approach and considered the findings from a wide-ranging consultation process, strongly focused on the views of children and young people.
Some of the key actions the Department has committed to implement are:
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A new training plan for department staff to involve children and young people in policy development,
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training for department staff on writing in a student friendly accessible way,
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an annual report on student participation in policy development,
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an annual participation newsletter to children and young people to show them how their views have influenced policy in the Department of Education,
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a student-friendly summary page in inspection reports on curriculum evaluations in primary schools and inspection reports on subject inspections in post-primary schools.
