Children will form part of a national debate on the future of education in Ireland for the first time this weekend.
The Convention on Education is made up of 150 members, including 30 children and young people, 30 parents, 30 school employees and 60 education stakeholders.
It will meet over four weekends throughout 2026 to discuss the future of primary and post-primary education in Ireland.
Its recommendations will inform a new long-term strategy within the Department of Education.
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Its first meeting is on Saturday in Athlone, Co Westmeath, with Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton due to address delegates.
“This will be the largest exercise to date in Ireland of deliberative democracy, with 150 people taking part,” the Minister is due to tell the convention.
“For the first time ever, children and young people between the ages of eight and 24 will be full members. Their views and thoughts will carry equal weight to all other members of the convention,” Naughton will say.
The convention will be chaired by Prof Anne Looney, a former executive dean of Dublin City University’s Institute of Education.
The topics discussed will be informed by findings from the National Conversation on Education, which took the views of more than 40,000 people across the country through surveys, submissions and school community engagements.
The focus will be on primary and secondary schools, the transitions within education, looking at what is working well, what challenges need attention, and what changes may be needed in the years ahead.
“The deliberations of the convention will be focused on the future of our school system, looking beyond immediate challenges and concerns to the longer term, to the design of a system for the future,” Looney is due to tell the convention on Saturday.
“The results from the National Conversation on Education will guide the convention in its deliberations on what is important for our education system in that future and inform its recommendations for Government,” Looney will say.
