Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 166: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the timescale for the evaluation of all primary and post primary schools under the whole school evaluation scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34216/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Last June saw a major advance in terms of the transparency of our education system, as school inspection reports became available to the general public for the first time. The publication of whole-school evaluation reports will ensure that parents and other stakeholders have access to balanced and fair information on the wide range of activities in which schools are involved. WSE reports identify when schools and teachers are working to optimum effect and where improvements are needed. They provide a fair analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of schools in a way that can provide a real indication of school quality. They not only provide valuable information for parents but they also help to foster improvement in schools and spread best practice.

In June 2006 a total of 154 inspection reports arising from inspections in primary and post-primary schools were published on the Department's website. These include 36 WSE reports on primary schools, 5 post-primary WSE reports and 113 Subject Inspection reports. More than 160 inspection reports will be published in the next few days encompassing WSE reports at primary and post-primary levels as well as subject inspection reports on post-primary schools. Looking at the full calendar year it is anticipated that 228 primary WSEs and 57 post-primary WSEs will have been conducted by the end of 2006. The inspection rate may vary from year to year and clearly it will take some time to reach all schools. However, I would like to stress that whole-school evaluations are just one aspect of the work of the inspectorate of my Department.

At post-primary level, for example, in addition to WSE, 449 stand-alone Subject Inspections will be undertaken in post-primary schools this year. These inspections provide very valuable and focused information on teaching, learning and curriculum provision in an individual subject in a post-primary school. Taking WSE inspections and Subject Inspections together, it is expected that almost 500 of the 735 post-primary schools in the state will have an external evaluation by the Inspectorate this year and all schools should experience a subject evaluation approximately every three years.

At primary level, in addition to WSE, the Inspectorate will this year evaluate and report on the work of approximately 2,300 newly-qualified and other primary teachers who are on probation. Because I have been able to increase the numbers of teachers at primary level at an unprecedented rate, the number of newly qualified teachers in primary schools has risen rapidly. As a consequence, the evaluation of newly qualified teachers now represents a very significant element of the overall inspection programme at primary level. The presence of inspectors in a very large number of primary schools in the context of probationary evaluation work has had an additional benefit for the schools through the advice and support given to school management.

My Department is progressing a range of quality-focused initiatives that must be considered alongside our external evaluation processes. These include, for example, the promotion of school development planning in all of our primary and post-primary schools with the assistance of the School Development Planning support services, direct support for curriculum implementation through the Second Level Support Service and the Primary Curriculum Support Programme, and support for school principals and deputy principals through the Leadership Development for Schools initiative.

A balanced strategy that provides support for internal development within schools along with effective external inspection will, I believe, deliver continuous improvement in schools.

Up-to-date information on the inspections that have been carried out in primary and post-primary schools and the list of published reports are available on the website of my Department (www.education.ie) at any time.