Dr. Harold Hislop:

I will work from the bottom of my list of questions if I may. The instructional leadership programme has begun in many of what were the Cork vocational educational committees. We have had close links with it and some inspectors are involved in both the programme itself and helping to support that programme. While we do not run it we are very much aware of it, and we see the good outcomes of it in the leadership skills it gives to principals in many schools. It has done some very good work. Some of us would have spoken at some of their conferences and training programmes at different times in the past.

The leadership of the school is a critical factor in the quality of the self-evaluation and the attitude to improving. The implementation of the curriculum in general is dependent on the attitude of the principal of the school. We spend quite a lot of time in inspections as well looking at the quality of that leadership, asking the right questions and prompting that leadership to move on and to challenge the work that leader is doing but also the work they are doing with their teachers.

On the voluntary nature of the boards of management, I mentioned that because people who serve on boards of management do extraordinary public service.

They operate and run the system without the local education authorities that would exist in many other countries. That therefore is the reason that when we evaluate the work, we are conscious they are volunteers with different sets of skills, some having very rich skill sets and others having more limited skill sets. There are training programmes which the management authorities provide, paid for by the Department, to help upskill those people. However, this does not obviate the need for the board to actually run the school. We are absolutely clear on that. We make our judgments on how effectively the school is run and how effectively the board is carrying out its duties. Some of these are down to setting and signing off on general policy and making sure they are implemented. However, in self-evaluation we perceive a really important role for the board to want to know from the principal and senior teachers what are the results the children are getting in the school concerned. Questions such as whether the children are getting better, whether there are categories of students who are doing well or not doing well, what groups within the huge population that can be in a secondary school actually are making progress or what percentages of students are taking higher level rather than ordinary level are legitimate questions for a board to ask. Moreover, it can be really important support for the principal if the board is seen to ask those questions and to be interested in them.

Deputy McConalogue also asked about the numbers of inspections and self-evaluation and if I might ask Mr. Gary Ó Donnchadha to respond.