Industry
Educational Services
The Client
The Department of Education & Skills is a public sector government department with it's headquarters located in Dublin, along with additional offices in Tullamore & Athlone. It services the Irish school going population at all levels.
The Challenge
The number of births in 2008 set a 113 year record totalling 75,065 births. A challenge for the department was planning for future demographic growth and decline in order topredict where school places are and will be needed.
Solution
The department is now using GIS to help anticipate where 100,000 new school places will need to be created over the next seven years.
Benefits
The development and introduction of the Geographic Information System (GIS) has greatly improved the capacity of the department to identify the location and quantity of new school accommodation so as to better inform decision making processes.
Summary
The Department of Education & Skills is using GIS as a key tool in their decision making processes to anticipate where new school places will be needed over the next 7 years. The GIS allows detailed analysis to be conducted on the demographics of each part of the country ustilising data such as planned and recent housing developments, school enrollment trends, census information, as well as birth rates and child benefit statistics.
This was the department's first use of GI Technology for forward planning, but the benefits are now being recognised and filtering out into other sections. The Planning and Building Unit also works closely with local authorities in identifying where new schools are needed and in ensuring that they are delivered as quickly as possible.