Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome the progress that will be made by January 2006. The Minister referred to whole school evaluation and other reports. What does she mean by "other reports"? How far does she intend to go with whole school evaluation reports? I acknowledge what they will contain but I am concerned parents will not be given a clear enough picture. Information about the ethos of a school and boards of management should be included. Witnesses attending the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science highlighted difficulties parents faced in obtaining information from boards of management. I support the concept of whole school reports, as everything will be open, but it is important that parents should have access to all information, including details of results in schools to which they may send their children. I agree that crude league tables should not be developed but information about everything in a school cannot be given to parents if one of the core parts of education, the examination process, is ignored.

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