NI Kids Feel Their Views Are Heard

Northern Ireland children feel their voices are being heard and their views taken seriously, according to a new survey undertaken by Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster.

The latest Kids' Life and Times survey found that about three out of four children who participated felt their views were sought and were taken seriously in their school on issues including what they do in the classroom and how to make the school better.

Researchers from the Centre for Children's Rights (CCR) at Queen's University worked with six 10-year-old children from St Ita's in Belfast to develop the questionnaire.

Four out of five children believed it was easy to give their views.

Over 3,700 P7 pupils across Northern Ireland responded to the online survey, which included questions on children's participation rights, designed to assess children's perceptions of how seriously their views are taken by adults in schools and within the wider community.

But the results also suggested that the same was not the case in the wider community.

In response to the question 'In my community the adults ask me for my views', only around half the children agreed that this happened quite often, very often or always. The other half said it happened seldom or never.

Six out of ten children believed their views were taken seriously much of the time within the community.

"Over the last number of years we have developed and applied a children's rights-based approach to a wide range of research projects," said Lesley Emerson, Deputy Director of the CCR.

"This approach seeks to ensure that children are engaged actively in the research process from the design of the questions through to analysis and interpretation of findings. It ensures that children's views and children's perspectives are placed at the fore of our research."

Joanne Browne, Principal of St Ita's Primary School, said: "The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed their work with CCR and as a school we were delighted to be involved in this project. Children's participation in surveys, in particular assisting with the construction of survey questions on children's rights, is crucial. This ensures that their perspective and opinions are better understood and valued. The six pupils feel so proud that their work has led to a very meaningful survey which engaged so many P7 pupils."

(IT/JP)