Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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73. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of whole school evaluations that were conducted by his Department in the years 2010 to 2013, inclusive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12411/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department's Inspectorate conducted more than 15,000 inspections using a range of evaluation models in the period 2010 to 2013. This included 1,346 whole-school evaluations conducted in primary and post-primary schools. The breakdown by year is as follows: 2010 (318 WSE), 2011 (391 WSE), 2012 (346 WSE) and 2013 (291 WSE). The number of whole-school evaluations conducted towards the end of 2012 and in 2013 was reduced somewhat to accommodate advisory visits to schools by inspectors to support the implementation of self-evaluation. Inspectors conducted more than 3,700 such support visits to schools. The period 2010-2013 was a period of significant reform in the work of the Inspectorate. Substantial changes were made to support the delivery of an effective quality assurance system for Irish schools in the context of reduced staffing numbers in the Inspectorate. Those reforms included the development of new forms of whole-school evaluation at both levels.