Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 79: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills her plans to subject teachers and schools to transparent performance management as outlined in the Global Irish Forum Report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44675/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The objective identified by the Forum is essentially about the need to ensure that the Irish school system is subjected to evaluation so that performance across disciplines can be assessed, learning outcomes are identified and that this information is available nationally and at school level to relevant stakeholders.

This is important not just as an exercise in itself. It is about having quality assurance measures support an agenda of seeking continued improvement.

In support of this objective the Department conducts its own external evaluation of schools that involves at school level whole school evaluation, inspection of particular disciplines (subject inspection) and incidental visits along with thematic inspections that involve a cross school or sectoral approach. As recently as this week a report based on an aggregation of data from incidental inspections over the past year has provided insightful information on literacy and numeracy in primary schools. This report has been published.

School self evaluation is also critical to supporting an agenda of improvement. The Department's models for school self evaluation clearly identify the need for self evaluation to operate not just at a general level but at subject/discipline level. Again the central purpose at all times must be to inform what needs to be done to improve performance.