The quality of teaching in Northern Ireland needs to improve, the Education Minister Caitriona Ruane warned today.
Too many lessons are falling below standard despite one of the best qualified sets of teachers in the developed world, she added. In 2008-2009 almost 11,000 young people left school without having achieved five good GCSEs including literacy and maths.
However, teachers accused Ms Ruane of taking the easy option and failing to provide enough support.
Ms Ruane said: “Schools will get the support they need to improve performance but will be expected to deliver and will be held accountable for their outcomes.” She said one of the major reforms taking place was the Entitlement Framework - which sets out a range of courses which must be offered by schools - which will be required from 2013.
“From today, I am spelling out to all post-primary schools that I want to see a change in pace, a stepping up of efforts. All schools will be required to demonstrate how they will effectively deliver the Entitlement Framework and seek to maximise choice for children in the future - I want to ensure their plans are not only robust but will deliver a high quality learning experience.”
Arthur McGarrigle, Northern Ireland Secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said it was a "very simple and easy cop-out to blame any perceived failure on teachers alone".
“If you look back at Caitriona Ruane’s record for quite some time now she has agreed with us that it is the system which is to blame for so many children
failing when they leave after the age of 16. . . . If she is convinced many teachers are failing in the classroom what support processes will she put in place to help those teachers?”
Reuters