Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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1312. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to change the system for evaluating schools; and the information she plans to make available to parents. [33641/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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A range of mechanisms are in place for evaluating the work of schools. Schools are required to engage in school self-evaluation; the Inspectorate of my Department conducts a range of external inspections in schools that report on the quality and standards of teaching and learning in classrooms; national monitoring of standards is achieved through the periodic examination of standards in literacy and numeracy in national assessments of English reading and Mathematics at primary level conducted by the Educational Research Centre (ERC), Drumcondra; and standards in literacy, numeracy and science in primary and post-primary schools are monitored and benchmarked against international standards through our participation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), PIRLS (the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Programme for International Student assessment (PISA). Using this range of measures to monitor standards and achievement in schools enables me and the public to be assured of the quality of learning and teaching in schools.

Developments and actions will take place under each of these measures in the months and years ahead. During the 2014/15 school year, the Inspectorate of my Department will be conducting initial surveys to monitor the implementation of school self-evaluation in schools and I will be publishing plans for a Parent Charter that will strengthen the position of parents generally within our school system. The issue of the types of information that should be made available to parents is an issue that I will be looking at in that context. The Inspectorate's programme of external inspections has altered considerably in recent years and will continue to evolve, including the development of curriculum-focussed inspections at primary level. Preliminary results from the 2014 assessments of mathematics and English reading in primary schools are expected to be available from the ERC in late 2014 or early 2015; the next round of PISA will be conducted in 2015 and published by the OECD in 2016; and the next rounds of TIMSS and PIRLS are expected to be conducted in 2015 and 2016 respectively.