Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Whole school evaluation and subject inspection reports will be published. A significant number of subject inspection reports take place each year whereby all the teachers are inspected. These reports will be published, as will thematic inspection reports on, for example, Gaeilge, English and mathematics in the primary curriculum. The chief inspector's report referred to these topics this year. Composite reports will also be published, for example, on Gaeilge in the second level curriculum. These reports will give us a broad view of individual schools and the teaching of subjects throughout the system.

I appreciate the Deputy's comments on school ethos and boards of management but the reports take account of the context of the school, which comprises not only its geographic environment or catchment but also the ethos and the situation in which it is working. Many schools are good at issuing brochures and general information that captures that. However, they do not issue information that will be contained in the whole school evaluation reports. The Deputy commented previously about the publication of results. It would be naive to expect that we would not end up with league tables based on results if schools were to publish their results but schools have become open in their dealings with parents and parents, rightly, are demanding of schools regarding the information they provide. I hope, by going down this road with the Department providing the information it has nationally, which is professionally compiled in conjunction with schools, the schools will be encouraged to provide extra information of value to parents. They should not, however, provide information on results.

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