Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 261: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when a whole-school evaluation on all primary and secondary schools will be available to the public; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5876/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the regulations and guidelines concerning publication of inspection reports, which I published in late January 2006, provide that inspection reports arising from whole-school evaluation, subject inspections, programme evaluations and thematic inspections commenced on or after 6 February 2006 will be published. All of these inspections evaluate, as appropriate, the work of the school as a whole or the work of the school in delivering an area of the curriculum. The reports describe aspects such as the contributions of school management and school planning, as well as the quality of learning and teaching, and learning outcomes. The findings of the evaluations presented in each report take cognisance of the context in which the school or subject team or subject teachers in the school is operating.

All of the above reports arising from the general inspection programme for schools and centres for education will be published in their entirety and in accordance with the principles and procedures described in the guidelines on the publication of school inspection reports. A number of whole-school evaluations planned for 2006 had already commenced before 6 February 2006 and the reports arising from these evaluations will not be published by my Department.

At post-primary level, inspectors will be conducting the in-school phase of the first whole-school evaluations to which the regulations and guidelines will apply in the period from 27 February 2006 to 3 March 2006. It is expected that written reports will be issued to schools for factual verification four to five weeks later. A period of 20 school days is allowed to the board of management of a school to respond, if it so wishes, to the findings and recommendations of the report — it should be noted that the two week Easter school holiday period will occur during the processing of these reports.

A printed copy of each report will be issued to the school's board, the principal, the trustees or patron, the parents' association and the chief executive officer of the vocational education committee, if relevant. An electronic version of the report, normally accompanied by the school response, will then be prepared and published on the website of my Department. It is expected that publication on the website will occur from mid-May onwards.

At primary level, a number of whole-school evaluations to which the publication guidelines and regulations apply will also be under way in February. As in the case of the post-primary evaluations, reports arising from these inspections are also expected to be available for publication from mid-May onwards. A school or a teacher has the right to seek a review of any inspection as provided for by section 13(9) of the Education Act 1998. Should a school or teacher request such a review, publication will not take place until after the request for a review is processed in accordance with the published procedures on this matter.