Research removed from Department of Education website

The Department of Education (DE) has removed research on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pupils from its website.

The department itself commissioned the research, which was published in September 2017.

But members of the public are now no longer able to read the publication on the department’s website.

In a statement to BBC News NI, a departmental spokesperson said pages on its website may be reviewed and updated or removed at any time.

“The department is currently carrying out an exercise to review the content on its website,” they continued.

“A number of published pages and documents have been updated or removed as part of this ongoing process over recent weeks.”

The research into the experiences of LGBT pupils had been commissioned by the department in 2015.

It paid an external consultancy £28,690 to examine issues affecting LGBT pupils in post-primary schools.

The final report was based on the experiences of more than 500 young people aged between 16 and 21.

They responded to a series of questions about their experiences in school, including bullying.

When the research was published by the department in 2017, two-thirds of the LGBT young people who took part said they did not feel welcomed or valued in their post-primary school.

Almost half said they had experienced bullying as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The research also suggested a range of other issues including:

• A lack of teaching about LGBT issues on the school curriculum
• Unhelpful sexual health education
• Almost four in 10 pupils saying they had been made to feel uncomfortable by teachers
• Those who reported bullying to staff being left unsatisfied by how their complaint was handled

Although the research had been publicly available on the department’s website since 2017, it has now been removed.