Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2006
50 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of subject evaluations completed at post-primary level to date in 2006; the projected number to be completed over the course of 2006; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25739/06]
View answerA totally new format of Subject Inspection was introduced for post-primary schools in September 2001. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of Subject Inspections carried out each year. In particular, from 2003 onwards inspection activity at post-primary level increased very significantly following the recruitment of new post-primary inspectors to replace those assigned to the State Examinations Commission. By the end of December 2005 the Inspectorate had carried out 1,860 Subject Inspections in post-primary schools. Subject Inspections are carried out in accordance with "A Guide to Subject Inspection at Second Level" which was issued to schools in October 2004.
Under the new regulations on the publication of school reports, all reports arising from Subject Inspections commenced after 6 February 2006 will be published. Reports from 113 Subject Inspections conducted in the last few months were published on the website of my Department by 29 June 2006. 93 of these inspections were stand-alone Subject Inspections while a further 20 inspections were conducted as part of WSE evaluations. Up-to-date information on the numbers of reports and lists of published reports are available on the website (www.education.ie) at any time.
It is planned that approximately 660 Subject Inspections will take place in post-primary schools in 2006. In the case of 50 of these inspections, evaluation work had commenced before the introduction of the new regulations, and the reports arising from these evaluations will not be published but have been issued to schools. Reports arising from the remaining 610 Subject Inspections will be published when the evaluations are completed and schools have had an opportunity to submit school responses to the inspection reports. A substantial number of these Subject Inspection reports will be published before the end of 2006, in accordance with the publication guidelines, and the remainder will appear early in 2007.
