Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 Oct 1999

Vol. 509 No. 3

Written Answers. - School Evaluation Programme.

Gay Mitchell

Question:

65 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science the findings to date from the process of whole school evaluation in terms of broad management of the schools, the quality of teaching, the availability of support services and the outcome for pupils; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that 60 per cent of second level schools are offering general subject classes with more than the recommended maximum of 30; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20011/99]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

With regard to the findings to date from the whole school evaluation, WSE, project, it is important to emphasise that this was a pilot project, the purpose of which was to obtain information on how the process of WSE would work in practice and on the extent to which it could provide information on the working of the school system generally. Schools volunteered to participate in the project and for this reason those that took part – 35 in all, 18 primary and 17 second-level – could not be assumed to be representative of the totality of schools in the country.

Notwithstanding this, it is clear from the findings that WSE is broadly acceptable to schools and can contribute significantly to schools' planning and development. Both managements and teachers in the pilot schools welcomed the project and expressed considerable satisfaction with most aspects of the process.

Now that the pilot project has been completed, my Department has initiated a new round of consultations with the education partners and I hope to be in a position to put proposals for the development of the process to the partners and the schools in the near future.

From the reports given to schools in the project it was evident that in most schools there is a strong commitment on the part of management to the empowerment and development of staff and to supporting the professional culture of the school. In many schools, also, there is real and meaningful delegation of duties and responsibilities and staff are encouraged to he innovative and proactive in carrying out their duties.

Because of the relatively small number of schools in the project, it is not possible to generalise on the quality of teaching across all schools. While aspects of the teaching and learning in particular subject areas were identified as needing further development in some schools, overall it is noteworthy that the reports indicate that the inspectors found much to praise in the learning and teaching they observed. Most of the recommendations they made for improvement related to matters of detail or curricular issues, rather than the overall quality of teaching.

As agreed with the education partners, only certain aspects of the school's functioning were the subject of the pilot project, and the availability of support services was not an issue that was evaluated. With regard to the outcomes for pupils, clearly all aspects of the school's functioning must impact on the quality of pupil learning and, in the pilot project schools at least, the inspectors found many examples of high quality teaching and learning.

In relation to the issue of class size, I should point out to the Deputy that this school year is seeing the first allocation of additional teachers to second level schools for some years. This year provision was made for 225 additional teachers and this, together with the retention of some 130 teachers who would otherwise have been redeployed, is enabling us to provide a remedial teaching service in every second level school and also to bring all disadvantaged schools into the home school liaison scheme. I have also made improvements in the provisions available for guidance in our schools with a guaranteed minimum allocation now available to every school.

In addition to providing for additional teachers, I have, this year, introduced a new retention ratio for secondary schools. The impact of this is to retain in schools teachers who would otherwise be liable to be redeployed. In all, some 150 teachers have been retained under this initiative and these teachers will continue to be available to improve the quality of education in our schools.

In the 1998-99 school year the pupil teacher ratio at second level was approximately 15.4 to 1. Allowing for the increase of some 225 teachers and a projected drop in enrolments, it is expected that the pupil teacher ratio will reduce to approximately 15.1 to 1 in the current school year. Within this, there are a large number of very small classes.

I am sure the Deputy will agree that the principal concern in relation to class size must be the impact on educational attainment. In this regard, the great body of research indicates that the major impact of class size is to be found in the early years of primary education and for disadvantaged groups in particular.