In accordance with the Croke Park agreement, inspectors in my Department have implemented a significant programme of reforms to inspection procedures. The reforms have achieved efficiencies through a reduction in the inspection resources required for whole-school evaluations and other inspections in primary and post-primary schools. The reforms also involved improving the reports arising from inspections and introducing questionnaires for parents and students, thus giving them a greater voice in commenting on school quality. A much greater proportion of inspectors' time in evaluations is now spent on the observation of practice in classrooms and in the provision of feedback to teachers.
Overall, across the main categories of inspection activity, the Inspectorate's outputs for 2011 were ahead of the previous year by around 15%. The reforms to inspection have enabled output to increase despite a significant reduction in staff numbers in the Inspectorate from 154 staff in 2009 to 123 inspectors at the end of September 2012.