Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy entirely on the importance of teachers in transforming the learning environment. It is probably the most effective thing we can do to improve education standards. That is proven by international data as well as our own. It is heartening to see the progress we are making in mathematics, science and literacy standards. We are seeing huge improvements in these areas and that is due to the leadership of teachers in the classroom. Equally, we want to develop a stronger planning capability within the schools. We have developed systems of self-evaluation in schools in which the school principal and staff engage. That is why the centre for school leadership has been established to provide additional supports to leaders within schools who are doing that kind of planning. My own inspectorate is also working with those schools and we now have school visits that are not the usual type of thing with an cigire coming in with his red pencil to see what was going wrong but are advisory and supportive visits to schools. These are very successful and I want to see more of that done. I also want to evaluate the quality of the CPD we are doing. The Deputy is correct. It is an investment of €46.5 million. Perhaps it should be more, but we should do a deep dive to see its quality and impact, establish what is working best and how we might improve it as we go along.

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