Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when it is envisaged that the first whole school evaluation report will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13328/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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During the summer of 2005 I announced that the Department of Education and Science would publish inspection reports arising from the general programme of school inspections. I believed that the publication of future school inspection reports would go a significant way to addressing the real needs of parents, students, teachers and others for better information on schools. I stated that inspectors' reports can identify when schools and teachers are working to optimum effect and where improvements are needed. The reports provide fair and penetrating analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of schools in a way that can provide a real indication of school quality. They provide valuable information for the schools' boards and teachers, and for current and prospective parents.

I requested that the inspectorate conduct oral and written consultations with the education partners in autumn 2005 on determining how best to make school inspection reports more generally available. Twenty-one organisations participated and the consultations were completed in January 2006. Written guidelines were subsequently produced on the publication of inspection reports. I laid the Education Act 1998 (Publication of Inspection Reports on Schools and Centres for Education) Regulations Act before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 31 January 2006.

All reports arising from WSE inspections commenced on or after 6 February 2006 will be subject to publication. Reports arising from inspections commenced prior to that date will not be published by the Department. The procedures provide that the school authorities will have an opportunity to verify the facts in the report — period of ten school days — and the school will have a right of response to the reports; 20 school days is allowed for this process. It is intended that both the inspection report and the school response, where this is provided by the school's board of management, will be published simultaneously.

A timeframe of 14 weeks in the case of a whole school evaluation report is allowed from the time when the in-school activity is completed and the report is placed on the Department's website. If a school appeals a report the process will take longer.

Reports on 99 whole school evaluations conducted in primary and post-primary schools in the first half of 2006 will be published. Given the 14-week timeframe for the publication of these reports it is expected that six WSE reports at post-primary level should be published by the end of June and up to 32 WSE reports at primary level by the same time. As the timeframe for the publication of subject inspections is two weeks shorter it is expected that a number of subject inspections will be the first reports published and this should occur earlier in June.