Madam, - A panel published in the Education & Parenting section of your edition of March 18th contains the statement that "primary and vocational teachers are routinely inspected, but inspection at second level is rare". This is inaccurate.
In the year 2002, for example, inspections of teachers took place in a total of 339 second-level schools, of which 197 were voluntary secondary schools, 52 were community/comprehensive schools and 90 were schools/colleges under the management of vocational education committees.
The role of the inspectorate has been clearly defined in Section 13 of the Education Act 1998 which requires inspectors to visit schools and centres for education on the initiative of the inspectorate and to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the education provided, including the quality and effectiveness of individual teachers.
Subject inspection in second-level schools is welcomed by school management authorities as well as by individual schools and teachers.
Recent experience of inspectors has been that in the overwhelming majority of cases, schools and teachers co-operate fully with the inspection process in line with the requirements of the Education Act 1998.
I should also add that the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Noel Dempsey, announced that Whole School Evaluation will be introduced to schools on a phased basis, beginning in September 2003, as a complement to existing inspection and evaluation systems. - Yours, etc.,
MALACHY CORCORAN,
Communications Unit,
Department of Education
and Science,
Marlborough Street,
Dublin 1.