Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 April 2015
679. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the number of random inspections of accreditation and co-ordination of English language services approved schools has increase in the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13951/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraQuality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) operates ACELS (Accreditation and Co-ordination of English Language Services), which is a voluntary scheme that grants recognition to English language teaching organisations annually. Under the terms of the regulations governing the operation of ACELS, all applicant schools undergo an announced site inspection during Stage 2 of the application process. With regard to unannounced inspections of recognised ACELS English language schools, these take place when: (i) There is a change of ownership of the English language school; (ii) A new general or academic manager(s) is appointed; or (iii) There is a change of premises, or an additional premises is added to the school (in this case the additional premises is inspected).
All English language schools with ACELS recognition are obliged to inform the ACELS Recognition Committee of any of the 3 above changes and on that basis, an unannounced inspection is arranged.
The English language school in question will not know the date of the inspection but will be aware that an inspection is forthcoming. An unannounced inspection may also be triggered on foot of a complaint.
Therefore the number of unannounced inspections per annum is contingent on the number of incidents of the above. As an approximate estimate, there tends to be between 15 – 20 unannounced inspections per annum. There has been no decision taken to increase or decrease the number of unannounced inspections in the last 12 months.
