The NEWB is charged with ensuring that each child in the country is receives an education. Schools are obliged to cooperate with the NEWB and are required to furnish details of pupils absences if:

• a pupil has been absent from school for a cumulative total of twenty days or more
• a pupil’s name is to be removed from the school register for any reason
• a pupil has been suspended for a cumulative total of six or more days
• a principal is concerned about a student’s attendance
• the school has expelled a pupil.

School have the option to provide the required information in written format or online at SchoolReturn.ie

The school return site asks for a lot of information about the pupil and his/her parents. Having read today’s newspaper my concerns about providing this information online have been heightened.

It appears the NEWB IT Manager has been fiddling tenders etc. with a supplier and has intercepted confidential emails between the Financial Controller and the Chief Executive Officer.

This leads me to question how safe is the information under the control of the NEWB. Who’s to say that this personal information won’t appear in the public domain in the future? IT security is always an issue and those in charge of sensitive material have to be proactively responsible.

The National Educational Welfare Board doesn’t instil confidence in me. The pupils in need of help still seem to be falling through the cracks …. school dropout numbers are still as high as ever. The early years of the NEWB were a mess …. schools that reported pupils exceeding the 20 days of absence were told that the information had ‘fallen into a dark hole’ and that the information provided wasn’t acted upon.

NEWB ….. get your act together!

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